bCi 



oresand Card-Table Talk 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 






©lap^SM dtrorig^t 'SiA2I2f [ 

UNITED STATES OF AMEEICA. 



WHIST SCORES 



AND 



CARD-TABLE TALK, 



WHIST SCORES 



AND 



CARD-TABLE TALK 



WITH 



51 25ilJiiograpIjp of WWt 



BY 



RUDOLF H. RHEINHARDT 



n 



^ 




. . Suit of Black Knights, Chinese Pack. 

/ ^^ ^^ (British Museum, Catl. PI. xxi.) 



4 



CHICAGO 

A. C. McCLURG AND COMPANY 
1887 







Copyright by 
A. C. McClurg and Company 

1886 



©etiicatcti 



[without permission] 



TO 




THE DEUCE AND TREY. 



Note. — It is but proper to acknowledge indebtedness for the above 
unique portrait of these celebrated individuals to the late Rev. E. S. 
Taylor, of Orraesly St. Margaret, Great Yarmouth, England. 



PREFACE. 




OME three years ago, at a little whist-party that 
I had the pleasure of attending, the score was 
kept on the back of a visiting-card, which was 
tucked partly under the marble slab of the table on 
which we were playing. When the rubber was fin- 
ished, our hostess brought forth from under this same 
slab other cards containing the scores of many games 
at whist that had been played at that table during the 
preceding winter. She explained to us whom the 
initials designated, and had a number of items of in- 
terest to tell concerning the various whist-parties and 
their play. We were delighted with it all, and there 
came to me the idea that a little book prepared to re- 
ceive just such items as these, as well as the autographs 
of the players, would be a welcome thing in every 
whist-circle, to every whist-player, and might in after 
days serve to bring to mind in a dehghtful way the 
charm of evenings in the past. The idea of adding 
to the blanks matter of interest connected with cards 
and card-players was a natural one ; and the farther I 



8 PREFACE. 

progressed in the undertaking, the more coiivinced did 
I become of the desirability of a good bibliography. 
Such was the growth of this little volume. 

Much that is of interest has been written as to cards 
and card-players, but it lies, in large part, hidden away 
in elaborate and expensive treatises and documents, 
buried in old and rare newspapers and magazines, or 
scattered in little fragments up and down the highways 
and by ways of literature. To search it out and bring 
it to the light was a task far greater than I anticipated, 
but one that compensated for the many difficulties 
and perplexities that it presented, by the substantial 
rewards and thousand and one delightful little surprises 
it afforded. 

In the chapter on Etymologies, etc., I have attempted 
to give what no one dictionary does, — a correct deri- 
vation of words connected with whist, and one that 
makes clear just how the card-meaning of the word is 
'^derived." It is to be hoped that the English diction- 
aries now in process of making will give adequate and 
scholarly treatment to this class of words, and not 
simply harbor the guesses advanced by writers on 
cards, who for the most part have not the scholarly 
training fitting them for speaking with authority on 
etymological questions. A peep into the " Catalogue 
of Playing and other Cards in the British Museum " 
would delight the heart of the seeker for additional 
words for new supplements to our dictionaries ; but the 
discovery will also lay upon him the duty of a proper 
study and treatment of these words. 



PREFACE. 9 

In the preparation of the historical part of the volume 
I have been to much pains to present the facts and 
theories in accordance with the results of the labors of 
the most trustworthy and recent investigators, and to 
give an account of the subject that would be at once 
comprehensive and brief. The illustrations are in- 
tended to be representative ; but I saw no occasion to 
give copies of French and English cards, as they differ 
only slightly from those in use among us. In this as in 
other parts of the book I have striven to keep in mind 
that I was writing for entertainment, and not for instruc- 
tion, and have therefore given preference to those facts 
and items that seemed fraught with most interest. 

The book consists avowedly to a large extent of 
extracts and gleanings from the writings of others, and 
I have made no attempt by re-wording or other dodges 
to give it a look of originality which it could not possess. 
I have, on the contrary, — perhaps to an extent that 
may savor of pedantry, — tried to give full credit not 
only for extracts, but also for adopted ideas. 

I trust no one will regard this little book as an 
attempt at a treatise on whist ; I do not know enough 
about whist to venture such a thing. Indeed, I am 
afraid I am one of those who would cause " unmingled 
distaste in the fine last-century countenance of Sarah 
Battle j " for I enjoy whist most as a relaxation, and 
will not deny that I do heartily delight in a dainty bit 
of card-table talk that is not an analysis of the hand 
just playe^d : and it is the behef that I am not the 
only bird of the feather that has given me courage 



lO PREFACE. 

to do SO bold a thing as provide more talk for the 
whist-table. 

I desire to make special acknowledgment of my 
appreciation of the kmdness shown me by Prof. Otis T. 
Mason, curator of the Ethnological Department of the 
Smithsonian Institution, by which I was enabled to 
make copies of playing-cards in the United States 
National Museum, including the hitherto unpubHshed 
buckskin cards of the Apache Indians. 

RUDOLF H. RHEINHARDT. 



CONTENTS. 



Page 

Bibliography 17 

Games and Gaming before Cards 35 

History of Playing-Cards 

Origin 43 

Naibis, or Tarots 47 

Numeral Cards 53 

First Mention 55 

Cards in China 55 

Cards of India and Persia 59 

The Material 61 

The First Makers 63 

Cards and Card-Making in Germany 65 

Spanish Cards and their Derivatives 73 

Cards of Italy 85 

Cards in France 85 

Cards in England Sy 

Cards with a Secondary Purpose 89 

Unique Cards 93 

Card Oddities 95 

Peculiar Uses of Cards 97 

Manufacture of Cards 99 

Card-Games other than Whist loi 

Carding and Gaming in France 105 

" " '' England 11 1 

" " " Germany 129 

Gaming at Monte Carlo 137 



1 2 CONTENTS. 

Page 

Gambling in America 139 

Legislation as to Cards and Gaming 145 

The Morality of Card- Playing 157 

Whist 

The Etymologies and Meanings of Certain Words 

connected with Whist 161 

History of Whist 169 

Books on Whist 179 

Edgar Allan Poe on Whist 181 

Whist a Language 183 

Teaching and Learning 185 

Advice to Whist Students 187 

Simple Elementary Rules 192 

The Duffer's Whist Maxims 195 

Great Whist Players 203 

Talking at Whist 203 

Whist and the Temper , . 203 

Whist Etiquette 207 

Whist Tyrants 207 

Playing Whist (.^) 209 

Mrs. Battle's Opinions on Whist 209 

Whist with Charles Lamb 213 

A Catechism of Whist 217 

German Whist 219 

Preference, or Swedish Whist 221 

Shuffling 223 

A Shuffling Machine 223 

Whist Played by Machinery 223 

The Number of Different Hands 227 

Tricks with Cards 229 

Card-Sharping 237 

Fortune-Telling with Cards 245 

Clergymen and Cards 253 

Wesley and Whist 257 

Card Sermons 259 

Richard Middleton's Cards 261 

Cards at Christmas 269 



CONTENTS. I ^ 

Page 

A Satire on Carding 271 

The Ettrick Shepherd on Card-Playing . . . .275 

Hawthorne and Card-Playing 289 

Chitchat 

Playing for a Child 293 

Lookup, the Gambler 293 

Epitaph on a Great Card-Player 295 

Cards at Wakes 295 

Paying his Debts 295 

The Malay Gambler 297 

Gaming in Spain 297 

Well Laid 299 

Snap-dragon 299 

An Ancient Transaction on 'Change 299 

Waste of Time 301 

Superstitions as to Cards 301 

Card Nicknames 303 

Index 305 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Page 

Suit of Black Knights, Chinese Pack (British Mu- 
seum, Catl., PI. xxi.), Vignette, Titlepage. 

The Deuce and Trey, Dedication. 

Tarot, the Emperor. (British Museum, CatL, PI. i.) 49 

Tarot, Man hanging by his Foot. (British Museum, 

CatL, PL iii.) 51 

Suit of Chains, Chinese Pack. (National Museum.) 57 

Suit of Horses, Chinese Pack. (British Museum, 

CatL, PI. xxi.) 57 

Forty Thousand Cords of the Suit of Wood, Chi- 
nese Pack. (National Museum.) 57 

King of White, or Moons, Hindustani Pack. 

(Chatto, PL i.) 59 

Queen of Hares, North German Pack, about 1500. 

(British Museum, Catl. 210, Chatto, 221.) 65 

King of Green, or Leaves, Old Style Piquet Pack, 
Recent Make. Frankfurt-am-Main. (National 
Museum.) 67 

Ten of Acorns, Old Style Piquet Pack, Recent 

Make. Frankfurt-am-Main. (National Museum.) 69 

Three of Bells, Saxon Pack, 1511. (Bibliotheque 

Nationale, Taylor, PL xvii.) ']'] 

Five of Cups, Mexican (Puebla) Pack of Spanish 

Cards, 1883. (National Museum, 73,737.) . , . . ']'^ 



l6 ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Page 

Three of Money, Spanish (Barcelona) Pack, 1850. 

(National Museum, 74,734.) 75 

King of Clubs, Mexican (Puebla) Pack of Spanish 

Cards, 1883. (National Museum, T^,'] '};].) . , .. . jj 

King of Clubs, Buckskin Pack of the Apaches of 

Arizona. (National Museum, 21,550.) 79 

Knave of Clubs, Buckskin Pack of the Apaches 

OF Arizona. (National Museum, 21,550.) .... 79 

Knight of Money, Buckskin Pack of the Apaches 

OF Arizona. (National Museum, 10,730.) . . . 79 

Seven of Swords, Spanish (Barcelona) Pack, 1850. 

(National Museum, 74,734.) 81 

Seven of Swords, Italian Pack (reduced). (British 

Museum, Catl., PI. ix.) 83 

Queen of Clubs, Scottish Heraldic Pack, 1691. 

(Taylor, PI. xxxix.) 91 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



Note. — In the following bibliography will be found the chief books on the 
history of cards, on gaming, etc, and all books and articles on whist that I 
could learn of. Those that I was not able to examine personally have been 
designated by an asterisk. Works in foreign languages have been included 
only when of paramount importance. It is intended to add to the whist 
bibliography in future editions, and I shall be thankful for bibliographical 
data as to any title or edition not noted. The only other bibliography of 
whist known to me is Linderfelt's, and to this I am indebted for about half a 
dozen titles. R. H. R. 



I. HISTORY OF CARDS, GAMING, Etc. 

Apperley, Chas J. [pseud. Nimrod). The Anatomy of Gam- 
ing. Eraser's Mag., vols. xvi. and xvii., 1837-8. 

Bartsch, Adam. Le peintre-graveur. Leipzig: 1803-21- 
54, 8vo. vi. 55; X. 70-120; xiii. 120-138.* 

BoiTEAU, Paul (Dieudonne Alexandre Paul Boiteau, nom de 
giter7'e Boiteau d'Ambly). Les cartes a jouer et ia cartoman- 
cie. Ouvrage illustre de 40 bois- Paris : Hachette, 1854. 
pp. 390, sm. 8vo. [ The foiuidation of Taylor's book.\ 

Same. Reprint. London: J. C. Hotten, 1859. pp. 390. 

Bullet, J. B. Recherches historiques sur les cartes a jouer. 
A Lyon : 1757. pp. 163, sm. Svo. 

Chatto, Wm. A. Facts and Speculations on the Origin and 
History of Playing Cards. London : J. R. Smith, 1848. pp. 
343, 8vo. 

Heller, Joseph. Ursprung der Spielkarten. [pp. 299-337 
in Geschichte der Holzschneidekunst. Bamberg : Kunz, 
1823. pp. 457, 8vo.] * 

2 



1 8 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

Hoffmann, Prof., pseud, for Angelo J. Lewis. 

Leber, M. C. Etudes historiques sur les cartes a jouer, prin- 
cipalement sur les cartes fran9aises, ou Ton examine quel- 
ques opinions publiees en France sur ce sujet. (Extrait 
du tome xvi des memoires de la soci^te royale des anti- 
quaires de France. Paris: 1842.) 8vo. 

Lewis, Angelo J. (psezcd. Prof. Hoffmann). Tricks with 
Cards. London and New York. [N. D.] pp. 145, i2mo. 

Merlin, R. Origine des cartes a jouer. Recherches nou- 
velles sur les naibis, les tarots, et sur les autres especes de 
cartes. Ouvrage accompagne d'un album de soixante- 
quatorze planches. Paris : [1869]. 4to. 

NoRDHOFF, Chas. Cards and Dice. Harper's Mag. xxvi. 163- 
176. \Mostly fro7n Chatto and Apperley.] 

Seaver, Wm. A. The Gaming Table. Harper's Mag. xli. 
130-5. [Little more than a condensation of Steinmetz's 
wor/e.] 

Seidel, J. C. Das I'Hombre-Cabinet, etc., nebst einer Nach- 
richt von Erfindung der Spielkarten [pp. 148-166]. Frank- 
furt a. d. Oder : 1785. pp. 168, 8vo. 

Singer, Samuel W. Researches into the History of Playing 
Cards ; with illustrations of the Origin of Printing and En- 
graving on Wood. London: R. Triphook, 1816. pp.373, 
4to. 

Steinmetz, Andrew. The Gaming Table, its Votaries and 
Victims. 2 vols. London: Tinsley, 1870. pp. 436 + 444, 
8vo. 

Taylor, Rev. Ed. S. The History of Playing Cards, with 
Anecdotes of their use in Conjuring, Fortune-telling, and 
Card-sharping. London: Hotten, 1865. pp. 529, sm. 8vo. 
[See Boiteau d'Ambly.] 

Times, John. Clubs and Club Life in London, with anec- 
dotes of its famous Coffee-houses, Hostelries, and Taverns, 
from the 17th century to the present time. London : Chatto 
& Windus. [N. D.] pp. 544, 8vo., illustrated. 

WiLLSHiRE, Wm. H. A Descriptive Catalogue of Playing and 
other Cards in the British Museum, accompanied by a con- 



BIBLIO GRAPHY. 1 9 

cise General History of the Subject, and remarks on Cards 
of Divination and of a politico-historical character. Printed 
by Order of the Trustees, 1876, pp. 360. With Supplement 
containing 23 plates, 1877, pp. 87, royal 8vo. [Rez'iewed in 
Nation, xxv. 260, Oct. 25, 1877.] 
Wright, Thomas. A History of Domestic Manners and Sen- 
timents in England during the Middle Ages. London ; 1862. 
pp. 502, 4to. 

II. WHIST. 

A*****, Major, ps end. for C. B. Coles. 

Ames, Fisher. Modern Whist, with the Laws of the Game. 
New York: Harper, 1879. pp- 84, 32mo. (Harper's Half- 
Hour Series, No. 119.) 

Aquarius, pseud. Easy Whist. London : Chapman & Hall, 
1883. pp. 48, 32mo. \See Buckland, 2.] 

The Hands at Whist. Chapman & Hall, 1883. pp. 64, 

32mo. 

Advanced Whist. Chapman & Hall, 1884. pp. 64, 32mo. 

Art and Mystery of Modern Gaming. The whole fully ex- 

pos'd and detected ; containing an Historical Account of all 
the Secret Abuses practised in the Games of Chance. Lon- 
don : J. Roberts, 1726. pp. iii. [Whisk, pp. 94-103.] 
Baldwin, John L. The Laws of Short Whist, ed. by J. L. 
Baldwin, adopted by the following Clubs : Arlington, Army 
and Navy \a71d 20 others\ ; and a Treatise on the Game by 
J[ames] C[lay]. London: Harrison, [1864]. pp. vii+iii, 
i6mo. ^Reviewed in Blackwood, xcvii. 46; April, 1865.] 

Same. 2d ed., with alterations and additions. London : 

Harrison. [N. D., 1870?] pp. 120, 8vo. 

Sai?ie. New ed., London : De La Rue, 1881. i2mo.* 

Sa?7ie. 1st American ed., with an Introduction. New 

York: Leypoldt & Holt, 1866. pp. 153, i6mo. 

Same. New Amer. from 2d Eng. ed. New York : Llolt, 



1880. pp. 163, i6mo. 

— Same. See Whist Triad. 



20 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

Bellecour, Abbe. The Academy of Play, [from the French]. 
London : F. Nevvbery, [1754]. pp. 8 4- 280. [Trumps, pp. 
168-202.] 

B[lyth], Colonel. The Whist-Player, the Laws and Prac- 
tice of Short-Whist explained and illustrated by Lieut.- 

Colonel B . London : Addey, 1856. pp. xv + 72, 8vo. 

[ist ed.] 

Same. 2d ed. London : Chapmarf & Hall, 1858. pp. 72, 

i6mo. 

■- Same. 3d ed. 1866. pp. "](}. 



BoHN, Henry G., ed. The Hand-book of Games, comprising 
new and carefully revised Treatises on Whist, etc., etc., writ- 
ten or compiled by Professors and Amateurs, ed. by Henry 
G. Bohn. London : Bohn, 1850. pp. 617, 8vo. [Wh. pp. 
xii-198. Wh. according to Matthews, pp. 7-30 ; Hoyle, 
31-77; Deschapelles, 78-145; the Editor, 146-198.] 

Bohn's New Hand-book of Games, comprising Whist, by 

Deschapelles, Matthews, Hoyle, Carleton, etc., etc. ; en- 
larged and improved by an Amer. Ed. Philadelphia : H. F. 
Anners, 1850. pp. 652, i2mo. [Wh. pp. 1-198; by J. W. 
Carleton, pp. 146-198.] 

BucKLAND, C. T. Whist for Beginners; 2d ed. London: 
Allen, 1883. pp. 31, 32mo. [ist ed. appeared in 1882.] 

Whist for Beginners, and the famous Whist Rhymes ; 

\also pp. 37-80: Easy Whist by Aquarius]. New York: 
Carleton. London : Low, 1884. 8vo. 

BuRNEY, Charles. Treatise on the Game of Whist. Lon- 
don : Boone, 1846. i8mo.* 

, James. See F. P. Watson. 

C, A. and B. D. Whist Studies; being Hands of Whist 
played through according to the System of Cavendish, etc., 
etc., by A. C. and B. D. London : Smith, Elder, & Co., 
1863. i2mo.* 

Cam, pseud, for W. Lewis. 

[Carlyon, T. T. S.], (pseud. Coelebs). The Laws and Prac- 
tice of Whist, by Coelebs. London : Saunders, 1856. i2mo. 
{Also ascribed to^. A. C2iX\yoxi.'\ [isted. 1851. — Litiderfelt.]'^ 



BIBLIOGRAPHY, 2 1 

[Carlyon, T. T. S.], [pseud. Coelebs). Same. New ed. Lon- 
don : Hardwicke, 1856. i6mo.* 

Same. New York : Appleton, 1859. pp. 71, sm. 8vo, illust. 

Cavendish, pseud, for Henry Jones. 

C[lay], J[ames]. See Baldwin, Cavendish's Card Essays, and 
Whist Triad. 

C GELEB s, pseud, for T . C arly on . 

[Coles, Chas. B.], [pseud. Major A*****). Short Whist, its 
Rise, Progress, and Laws, together with Maxims for Be- 
ginners, etc., etc., by Major A*****. London : Longmans, 
1834. pp. 95, i6mo. [Comic frontispiece.] 

Safne. 14th ed. To which are added Precepts for Tyros, 

by Mrs. B***** [attle]. London: Longmans, 1858. pp. 
Ill, i2mo. 

Saine. i8th ed. To which are added, etc., etc. ; with an 

essay on the Modern Scientific Game of Whist, by Professor 
P[oleJ. London: Longmans, 1865. i2mo. [6'<?^ Pole.] * 

[Cotton, Chas.] The Compleat Gamester ; or. Instructions 
how to play at Billiards, Trucks, etc., etc. London : 1674. 
pp. 12 -f- 232, i2mo. [Eng. Ruff and Honours and Whist, 
pp. 1 14-120.] [ist ed.] 

Same. 2d ed. London: 1676. [With frontispiece and 

^* explanation."] , 

Same. London: 1709. pp. 184. [Eng. Ruff, etc., pp. 84- 

Z%^ \0n the cover of the copy hi the Ridgezvay Library, 
Philadelphia, is written : '^A?i7z Chefter, her Book — pray god 
give her grace and that fJie may be a good Girl.^''\ [Incor- 
porated, i'j;^^,with Seymour's Court-Gamester, w/^/^/^ see.^ 

Crawley, Q2c^\.., pseud, for G. F. Pardon. 

C, T. Short Whist Register, Summary and Laws. London : 

Simpkin, 1878. Sq. i6mo.* 
Curtis, Geo. W. Whist at the English Court. Harper's 

Mag., ''Easy Chair." Hi. 936. 
Davies, Clement. Modern Whist, together with the Laws 

of Whist. London: Low, 1886. pp. 94, i6mo.* 
Deschapelles, M. Traite du Whist. Paris : Perrotin, 1840. 

pp.328, i2mo. Ilepartie; La Legislation. [Never completed.] 



22 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

Deschapelles, M. Same translated. Treatise on Whist, with 
Laws, 2 vols. London; Hookham, 1839; post 8vo. {Re- 
viewed in the Foreign Quarterly Review, xxiv. 335 ; Jan. 
1840. See also Bohn.] * 

[Dick, Wm. B.], [pseud. Trumps). The American Hoyle, 
or Gentleman's Hand-book of Games ; containing all the 
Games played in the U. S., with Rules, Descriptions, and 
Technicalities, adapted to the American methods of playing, 
by Trumps. To which is appended a Treatise on the Doc- 
trine of Chances. 8th ed. New York : Dick & Fitzgerald, 
[1874]. pp. 515, i2mo. [Wh. pp. 7-56 and 463.] 

Same. 13th ed. (Rewritten from Clay, Pole, Drayson, 

etc.) New York: Dick & Fitzgerald, 1885. [Copyright, 
1880.] pp. 526, i2mo. [Wh. pp. 1-53.] 

Dick^s Handbook of Whist, containing Pole's and Clay's 

Rules, etc.^ etc. New York : Dick & Fitzgerald, 1884. PP- 
loi, i6mo. \Take7i from The American Hoyle.] 

Same. pp. 56. [//. 52-96 of above omitted, and a few 

pages on the Philosophy of Whist added.'\ 

The Modern Pocket Hoyle, containing all the Games of 

Skill and Chance, etc.^ etc., by Trumps. New York : Dick 
& Fitzgerald, 1868. pp. 387, i6mo. [Wh. pp. 11-64.] 

r Same. loth ed., revised and corrected, [1880]. pp. 384, 



sm. 8vo. \The article on Whist, pp. 11-64, co7zsists of C^Ntn- 
dish's Laws and Principles, w///^ slight changes. \ 

The American Card- Player. New York : Dick & Fitz- 
gerald, [1866]. pp. 151, 8vo. [Wh. pp. 1-52.] 

Drayson, A. W. The Art of Practical Whist ; being a Series 
of Letters descriptive of every Part of the Game, and the 
best Method of becoming a Skilful Player, etc., etc. Lon- 
don : Routledge, 1879. PP- -^5' ^^- ^^^- 

Sa7ne. New York: Routledge, 1879. PP- ^15. [Re- 
viewed in Nation, xxx. 180; March 4, 1880.] 

American Leads. The Field, Jan. 31, 1885.* 



Five of Cujbs, pseud, for R. A. Proctor. 
Frere, Thomas. Hoyle's Games, illust. ed., etc., etc. New 
York : T. W. Strong, 1857. pp. 324, i2mo. [Wh. pp. 9-46.] 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



23 



Frere, Thomas. Same. Improved ed. Boston : De AYolfe, 
Fiske, & Co. [N. D.] pp. 365, 8vo. 

Gamblers Win, How ; or the Secrets of Advantage Playing 
exposed, etc., etc., by a Retired Professional. New York : 
Dick & Fitzgerald, 186S. pp. 112, 8vo. [Wh. pp. 79-86.] 

Gard, T. The Odds and Chances of Cocking, Whist, RafHe, 
Hazard, and Billiard, algebraically and arithmetically In- 
vestigated. London : printed for the Author. [N. D.] pp. 
-56, [Wh. 3]. 

Green, J. H. An Exposure of the Arts and Miseries of 
Gambling, etc., etc. 5th ed. ; improved. Philadelphia: G. B. 
Zieber, 1847. pp. 312, i2mo. [Wh. 189-200.] {There are 
many editions, with varying titles and some changes in the 
text.] 

Gamblers' Tricks with Cards exposed and explained, by 

J. H. Green, the Reformed Gambler. New York: Dick & 
Fitzgerald. [N. D., 1850?] pp. 113, 8vo. 

[Griswold, Wm. MacCrillis], [psetid. Q. P. Index), co7np. 
The Game of Whist. The Monograph, ex. No., Oct. 29, 
1881.* 

[Hardie, Robert], [psetcd. Eidrah Trebor). Hoyle made 
Familiar, by Eidrah Trebor. Edinburgh : Stirling, Ken- 
ney, & Co. London: Orr, 1843. 9^^ ^^-^ PP- viii + 112, 
i6mo. (Frontispiece.) [Wh. pp. 5-31.] 

Hayward, Abraham. Whist and Whist-Players. {Reprinted 
from Eraser's Mag., Ixxix. 487 ; April, 1869, ^^^ Biographical 
and Critical Essays, new series, 2 vols. London: 1873; 
i. 384-434-] 

HouDiN, Robert. The Sharper Detected and Exposed. Lon- 
don : Chapman & Hall, 1863. pp. 268, 8vo. [Wh. pp. 

243-245-] 
[Hoyle, Edmond.] A Short Treatise on the Game of 

Whist ; containing the Laws of Whist, and also some Rules 

whereby a Beginner may, with due Attention to them, attain 

to the playing it well ; with Calculations and Cases, by a 

Gentleman. Bath printed, and London reprinted, for W. 

Webster, near St. Paul's, 1743. [ist ed.] * 



24 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

[HoYLE, Edmond.] Same. By Edmond Hoyle, Gent. 6th ed., 
etc,^ etc. A Dictionary of Whist, which resolves ahiiost 
all the Critical Cases that may happen at the Game ; to 
which is added an Artificial Memory, etc., etc. London : 1746. 
pp. 80, i6mo. \Signedj Edmond Hoyle.] * 

Mr. Hoyle's Games of Whist, etc., etc. The 4th ed. To 

which is now first added two New Cases at Whist, never be- 
fore printed; also the New Laws of the Game at Whist, 
[agreed to 1760,] as played at White's and Samider's 
Chocolate-houses. London: [N. D.]. pp.216, i2mo. [Wh. 
pp. 1-91.] {Signed, Edmond Hoyle.] 

Mr. Hoyle's Games. 12th ed. London: Thos. Osborne. 

[N. D.] pp. X + 214, sm. 8vo. [Wh. pp. 1-86.] {Signed, 
Edmond Hoyle.] 

Same. i6th ed. {Printed autograph of 'Kdm.owd Hoyle.] 

An Essay toward making the Doctrine of Chances easy 

to those who miderstand vulgar Arithmetic only, etc., etc. A 
new ed., corrected. London : T. Osborne & R. Baldwin, 1 764.* 

The Polite Gamester, etc, etc., vf'ith an Essay toward mak- 



ing the Doctrine of Chances easy, etc., etc., by Edmund 
Hoyle, Gent. Dublin: 1776. pp. 217, i2mo. [Wh. p. 68.] 

Hoyle's Games Improved, containing Practical Treatises 

on Whist, etc., etc., carefully revised, etc., etc. New York : 
Geo. Long, 1821. pp. 278, sm. i2mo. [Wh. pp. 1-72.] 

Hoyle's improved ed. of the Rules for pla3'ing Fashionable 

Games, revised from the last London ed. New York : 
Borradaile, 1830. pp. 288, i6mo. [Wh. pp. 5-67.] 

Hoyle's Games, containing the Rules for playing Fashion- 
able Games, carefully revised from the last London ed., with 
American additions. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1879. PP- 
316, i2mo. [Wh. pp. 5-67.] 

Hoyle's Games. {In Fisher's 10 cent Handbooks.] * 



{See also Bohn, Dick, Frere, Hardie, Chas. Jones, Thos. 
Jones.] 

H , G. Hoyle's Games, improved and enlarged, etc., etc. 

By G. H , Esq. London: 1835. pp. 492, i2mo. [Wh. 

PP- 87-173-] 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



25 



Humours of Whist, The : a Dramatic Satire, as acted every 
day at White's and other Coffee-houses and Assemblies. 
London: 1743, 8vo.* 

The Polite Gamester, or the Humours of Whist, etc.^ 

etc. London: Cooper, 1753.* 

Index, Q. Y., pseud, for W. M. Griswold. 

Jackson, F. A. Catalogue of the Chess Collection of the late 
Geo. Allen, Esq., LL.D. Prepared by F. A. Jackson and 
G. B. Keen. Philadelphia : 1878. pp. 89. \^The collection 
is now i7t the Ridgezvay Library at Philadelphia, and con- 
tains many volumes on whist afzd cards in ge7ieral?[ 

Johnson, Chas. See Seymour, 8th ed. 

Jones, Chas. Hoyle's Games improved, etc., etc. ; revised 
and corrected by Chas. Jones. London : 1779. pp. 294. 
[Wh. pp. 1-93.] 

Saine. A new ed., enlarged. I^ondon : 1786. pp. 306. 

[Wh. pp. 1-94-] 
[Jones, Henry], [psetid. Cavendish). The Principles of 
Whist stated and explained, by Cavendish. London ; 
Bancks, 1862. Sq. i6mo. [ist ed.] * 

Same. The Laws and Practice of Whist, new ed. Lon- 
don : De La Rue, 1867. i6mo. 

Same. The Laws and Principles of Whist stated and ex- 
plained, and its Practice illustrated on an Original System 
by means of Hands played completely through. By Caven- 
dish. 9th ed. London: De La Rue, 1871. i2mo.* 

Same. 15th ed. De La Rue, 1885. pp. 272, sm. 8vo, illust. 

Same. See Whist Triad. 

Same. 5th ed. New York : Appleton, 1886. pp. 96, sq. 

8vo. [Fi7^st issued as New and Complete Treatise on Whist, 
by Cavendish.] 

Historical Notes on our National Game. London So- 
ciety, ix. 65 and 161-164 ; Jan. and Feb., 1866, 

■ Whist. London Society, vii. 57-62 ; Jan. and Feb., 1865. 

Pocket Guide to Whist. New ed. London : De La 

Rue, 1868. 32mo.* 

Pocket Laws of Whist. London : De La Rue, 1868. 32mo.* 



26 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

[Jones, Henry], (pseud. Cavendish). Pocket Rules for lead- 
ing at Whist, Table of Leads, etc. London : De La Rue, 
1868. 32mo* 

Letter to the Field, Feb. 4, 187 1.* 

Sa7?ie in Card Essays, pp. 247-254. 

Card Essays, Clay's Decisions, and Card-Table Talk, by 

Cavendish. London : De La Rue ; New York : Scribner 
«& Welford, 1879. pp. 260, 8vo. [Reviewed in Nation, 
XXX. 180 ; March 4, 1880.] 

Same. Amer. ed., with an index. New York : Holt, 

1880. pp. vii-]-290, i6mo. (Leisure Hour Series, No. 
109.) 

Same. New York : Lovell, 1880. pp. 257, sm. 8vo. 

(Lo veil's Library, No. 422.) 

Cavendish on Whist. \Being Laws and Principles from. 

the I2th Eng. ed., pp. 265 ; Appendix A, The Lead from 
Suits of Five or More, pp. 266-276 ; Appendix B, The Echo 
of the Call, pp. 277-279. New York: Lovell, 1881 ; and 
Card Essays, etc., 1880. pp. 257.] i2mo. \A close imitation 
of the Eng. ed.] 

American Leads. The Field, Jan. 10, 1885 ; April 18, 

1885; also in Whist, by Merry Andrew.* 

Whist Developments ; American Leads and the Plain- 
suit Echo. London; De La Rue, 1885. pp. xiv + 172, 
sm. 8vo^ illust. [ist ed.] [Reviewed in Spectator, Sept. 26, 

1885.] ' 

Whist, American Leads at. Macmillan's Mag., liii. 235- 



240 ; Jan. 1886. 

Jones, Thomas. Hoyle's Games improved, etc., etc. The 
Laws of the several Games, as settled and agreed to at 
White's and Stapleton's Chocolate-houses. Revised and 
corrected by Thomas Jones. London : 1779. pp. 216, 8vo. 
[Wh. pp. 1-81.] 

Lamb, Chas. Mrs. Battle's Opinions on Whist. Essays of 
Elia. Prose Works, London : Moxon, 1838. ii. 72-84. 

Same. London Mag., iii. 161.* 

Lewis, F. H. American Leads. The Field, March 7, 1885.* 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 2 7 

[Lewis, Walter], [psetcd. Cam). Whist; what Card to Lead. 

2d ed. London : Longmans, 1865. 32mo.* 
LiNDERFELT, Klas August. The Game of Preference, or 

Swedish Whist; with a bibliography of English Whist, [85 

titles]. Milwaukee : privately printed [75* copies], 1885. 

pp. 52, sm. 4to. 
[Matthews, J. B.] Recent Works on Cards. Nation, xxx. 

180; March 4, 1880. \RevieivofY)x2C)'^oxi <2;2(f Cavendish's 

Card Essays.] 
Ma[t]thews, Thomas. Advice to the Young Whist Player. 

i8th ed. Bath : 1828.* [ist ed. about 1805. — Cavendish.] 

[See also Bohn.] 

Whist and Short Whist. By T. Mathews and Major 

Young. New York : Appleton, 1857. [Being Advice to 
the Young W^hist-player, by T. M. pp. 1-72; and Short 
Whist, by M. Y. pp. 73-124.] i6mo. 

Meltonian, a., (pseud. ?). Whist by A. Meltonian. [pp. 

1.1-21, 69-79, 185-192, in The Philidorian, ed. by Geo. 

Walker, London, 1838.] 
^ERRY Andrew, (pseud.). American Leads. The Field, 

Jan. 10, 1885; March 28, 1885.* 

Whist; the American Lead Controversy, with a Letter by 

Cavendish. London: Paul, Trench, & Co., 1885. pp. 28, 
8mo, pamphlet. 

MiNCHiN, J. I. Review of Proctor's How to play Whist. 

Academy, xxvii. 128; Feb. 21, 1885. 
Mogul, (pseitd.). Whist. The Field, Feb. 23, 1867.* 

American Leads. The Field, Dec. 20, 1884 ; Feb. 7, 

March 21, 1885.* 

Morgan, Capt. H. F. The Whist-Player's Guide. Lon- 
don: Ward, [1881]. i8mo.^ 

Pam, T., (pseitd.). A Hint to Whist-Players. London Mag., 
xiv. 102 ; Jan. 1826.* 

Pardon, Geo. F., (pseud. Capt. Crawley). Handy Book of 
Games. London : Bickers. [N. D.] fcap. 8vo.* 

Sa?ne. New ed. London : Bickers & B., 1865. i2mo.* 

Sa?ne. New ed. London : Ward & Lock, 1876. 8vo.* 



28 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

Pardon, Geo. F., {pseud. Capt. Crawley). A Handbook of 
Whist, on the text of Hoyle. A new ed. London; Rout- 
ledge, 1863, [preface, i860], pp. 94, i6mo. 

The Card-Player's Manual ; comprising Whist, Loo, etc.^ 

etc. By Capt. Crawley. London : Ward, Lock, & Tyler, 
[1876]. pp. xii +9-242, i2mo. 

Same. Goodall, 1873-6. i2mo.* 

Theory and Practice of Whist. London : Bickers, 1865 

i2mo.* 

Whist for all Players. London : Goodall & Son, 1873 

32mo.* 

Payn, James. Whist-Players. In Some Literary Recollections 
3d ed. London : Smith, Elder, & Co., 1884. pp. 270-273. 

Pembridge, [pseud.). Whist, or BumblepupjDy .? Ten Lec- 
tures addressed to Children. 2d ed. London : Waters 
1880. 8vo.* 

Same. From the 2d London ed. Boston : Roberts Bros. 

1883. pp. 89, i6mo. {Reviewed in Nation, xxxvi. 241.] 

Saine. New York: Lovell, 1883. (Lovell's Library, 181.)* 

The Decline and Fall of Whist ; an Old-fashioned View 

of New-fangled Play. London : Waters, 1884. PP- 75> 32mo. 

P[ettes], G[eorge] W[illiam]. American, or Standard Whist, 
by G. W. P. Boston: Osgood, 1880. pp. xi 4- 268, i2mo. 
PoHLMAN, J. G. Whist rendered Familiar. 1827.* 
Pole, William. The Value of Skill at Whist. The Field, 
June 16, 1866.* 

Same. The Theory of the Modern Scientific Game of 

Whist. 2d ed. London: Longmans, 187 1. pp. viii -|- 93, 
i6mo. [ist ed., 1870. Fii^st appea^^ed in the 16th ed. of 
Coles's Short Whist, 1864, which see.] 

Same. 14th ed. London ; Longmans, 1883. pp. xii + 

112, i6mo. 

Same. From the last London ed. New York : Carle- 
ton, 1872. pp. 96, i6mo. 

Same. From the last London ed., to which is added the 

Laws and Rules of Whist, from the Portland Club Code. 
New York : Carleton, 1880. pp. 144. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



29 



Pole, William. Same. To which are added the Laws of 
Whist, as revised by the Portland and Arlington Clubs. 
Chicago and New York : Belford, Clarke, & Co. [N. D., 
but from the 5th ed., 1873. J PP- I39> sm. 8vo. 

Same. To which, etc., etc. New York: Lovell, 1884. pp. 

139, i6mo. (Loveirs Library, No. 406.) 

— — Cards [Whist] played by Machinery. Macmillan's Mag , 
xxxiii. 241-247 ; Jan., 1876. 

Conventions at Whist. Fortnightly Review, new series, 

XXV. 576-587 ; April, 1879. 

The Game of Whist. Macmillan's Mag., vii. 201-209. 

W^hist. Chambers's Journal, xxxix. 133.* 



The Philosophy of Whist : an Essay on the Scientific and 

Intellectual Aspects of the Modern Game. Part I., the Phil- 
osophy of Whist Play; Part II., the Philosophy of Whist 
Probabilities. 2d ed. London: De La Rue, 1884. pp. 
xiii + 218, sm. 8vo. 

Sa7ne. See Whist Triad. 

PoTE, B. E. Whist. Foreign Quarterly Review, No. 48.* 
Proctor, Richard A., [pseud. Five of Clubs). Our Whist 

Column. Knowledge, v. 153 ; March 7, 1884, and following 

numbers.* 

Sa77ie. N. Y. Tribune, 1885 : Feb. 8, 15, 22 ; March i, 

8, 15, 30; April 5, 12; May 3* 

How to play Whist ; with the Laws and Etiquette of 

Whist, Whist-whittlings, and 40 fully annotated Games. 
London : Longmans, 1885. pp. xi + 248, 8vo. (Knowledge 
Library.) [Reviewed in Academy, xxvii. 128 ; Feb. 21, 1885.] 

Same. New York : Harper, 1885. pp. 7 H- 199, i2mo. 

(Handy Series, No. 7.) 

Whist Chat. Longmans Mag. v. 369; Feb. 1885.* 

Home Whist. Knowledge, viii. 323 ; Oct. 9, 1885.* 

Same. London : Longmans, 1885. sq. i6mo.* 

Language of Whist. Longman's Mag., vi. 596-611 ; Oct. 



1885. 

QuiSQUis, (pseicd.). American Leads. The Field, Feb. 2r 
1885.* 



30 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

Rouse, Wm. The Doctrine of Chances, d'/<:. London: Lack- 
mgton, Allen, & Co. [N. D.] pp. 350. [Cards, pp. 61-121.] 

Roy, R. Treatise on Whist. London : Causton, 1848.* 

RuMMENS, Richard, [pseud. ?). Sample chapter of Rummens 
on Whist; comprising Maxims and General Remarks of all 
sorts, (pp. 86-95 ^^^ ^^^^ Philidorian, ed. by Geo. Walker, 
London: 1838.) 

Seymour, Richard. The Court Gamester, or Full and Easy 
Instructions, etc.^ etc. Written for the Use of the young 
Princesses. 3d ed. corrected. London : 1722. pp. 102, 
i2mo. [No Wh.] [ist ed., 1719, 2d, 1720.] 

Same. 4th ed., improved. London: 1728. pp.106. [No. 

Wh.] \l7i one voliwie with the Game of Quadrille, etc.^ etc, 
2d ed. London: 1728.] 

The Compleat Gamester, in three parts. 5th ed. Lon- 
don : 1734. pp. 132+94, i2mo. [Wh. 11. i-ic] [With 
this ed. Seymour's Court-Gamester and Cotton's Compleat 
Gamester were consolidated^ 

Same. Revised etc., etc., by Chas. Johnson. 8th ed. Lon- 
don : 1754. pp. 324, sm. 8vo. [Wh. pp. 137-194.] 

Seymour, S. A Compend of Short Whist, being a summary 

of the Principles, Rules, etc., etc. Compiled from the latest 

authorities. New York News Co., [1878].* 
Stephens, Alexander H. Whist. Johnson's Cyclopaedia, 

1877. iv. 1390. 
Ten ACE, Major, [pseud.). A Handbook of Whist, and Ready 

Reference Manual of the Modern Scientific Game. New 

York and London: Putnams, 1886, [copyright, 1885]. pp. 

no, 8vo. 
Thistlewood, Arthur, [pseicd. ?). Whist in Rhymes for 

Modern Times. Edinburgh : Seton & Meckenzie, 1873. PP- 

27, i2mo. {Also, London: Simpkin.] 
[Thomson, Alexander.] Whist, a Poem in Twelve Cantos. 

London: 1791.* 
Trebor, Eidrah, pseud, for Robert Hardie. 
Trist, Nicholas Browse, (''N. B. T."). American Leads. 

The Field, Feb. 28, 1885 ; March 28, 1885.* 



BIBLIOGRAPHY, 



31 



Trump, A., Jr., [/^d"?/^. /^r W. Pembroke Fetridge?]. Laws 
and Regulations of Short Whist. Adopted by the Wash- 
ington Club of Paris, etc.^ etc. New York : Harpers ; 
Paris: Galignani ; London: Adams, 1880. pp. iii, i2mo. 

Same. Harpers, 1882. pp. 112. 

Tku^ivs, pseud, for W. B. Dick. 

Walker, Capt. Arthur Campbell. The Correct Card, or 
how to play at Whist ; a Whist Catechism. London : Long- 
mans, 1876. pp. xiv4-82, i6mo. 

Sa??te. New York: Appleton, 1876. pp. ix + 82, i6mo. 

Same. New ed., with additions. New York : Ap- 
pleton, [1877].* 

Same, nth thousand. New York : Appleton, 1884. pp. 

xiv -1-78, i6mo. 

Watson, F. P. Short Whist; to which is added Long Whist, 
by Admiral [James] Burney. 4th ed. London : Boone, 1846. 
i8mo.* 

Westminster Papers, The : a Monthly Journal of Chess, 
W^hist, etc.^ etc. London : W. Kent. No. i, April, 1868. 
\Disco7itinued after a number of volumes had bee7t published. 
— Linderfelt.]* 

Whist. Rees's Cyclopaedia. London: 1819-38. [Mostly from 
Matthews.] 

Whist. American Cycl., New York: 1876. xvi. 598-601. 

Whist. Chambers's Journal, xix. 133; Feb. 28, 1863.* 

Whist. [A 7nonthly jow-nal published in London. No par- 
ticulars obtainable. — Linderfelt.] * 

Whist. The Game briefly Explained. To which is annexed 
the Laws of Whist in force at the Amicable Whist Club, 
1831.* 

Whist. Eclectic Mo., Ixxii. 687 ; cviii. 707 ; cxxxiii. 626 ; Ixxxiv. 

523-* 
Whist. London Morning Post, Jan. 1871.* 
Whist. London Daily Telegraph, Jan. 31, 187 1.* 

Same. Cavendish's Card Essays, pp. 240-246. 

Whist. Review of Whist, or Bumblepuppy. Nation, xxxvi. 

241.* 



32 BIBLIOGRAPHY, 

Whist. Origin and Name. Notes and Queries, iii. 3 : 91 ; Jan. 
31, 1863. 

Whist. Tenace, Love, Lurch. Notes and Queries, iii. 3 : 328; 
April 25, 1863. 

Whist as a Business. London Society, xxxvii. 43-47 ; Jan. 1880. 

Whist at our Club. Tales from Blackwood, No. xxiv. Re- 
printed from Blackwood's Mag., cxxi. 597-604 ; May, 1877. 

Whist, a Catechism of. Blackwood's Mag. xxxviii. 637-642 ; 
Nov. 1835. [Humorous.] 

Whist, Cheating at. Spectator, April 5, 1879. 

Whist, Developments of. Spectator, Iviii. 1259 ; Sept. 26, 1885. 
\Revie'w (t/" Cavendish's Whist Developments.] 

Whist, its History and Practice, with illustrations by Meadows. 
New ed. London : Bogue, 1844. i2mo.* 

Whist, Maxims for Playing the Game of. London : Payne, 
1773* 

Whist, Modern. A review of Hoyle's Short Treatise, 1743 ; 
Cavendish's Principles of Whist, 1862 ; Clay's Treatise on 
Short Whist, 1864; Pole's Theory, 1865. /;/ the Quar- 
terly Review, cxxx. 43-71 ; Jan. 187 1. 

Same. Littell's Living Age, cviii. 707 ; March 28, 1871.* 

Whist, Modern, Short Rules for ; extracted from the Quar- 
terly Review of Jan. 1871. London : Triibner, 1874. 48mo. 
[Printed on a folded card.] * 

Whist, Rational and Artificial. Cornhill Mag., liii. 143; Feb., 
1886* 

Whist Reminiscence, A, by an Old Hand. Blackwood's Mag., 
cv. 345-352 ; March, 1869. [A story.] 

Whist, Trump Leads in. Outing : April, May, June, July, Au- 
gust, September, 1885. 

Whist, Unscientific American. Knowledge, vi. 307 : Oct. 10, 
1884.* 

Whist-player's Hand-book, containing the Laws, Rules, etc., 
1831.* 

Whist-player's Hand-book, containing most of the Maxims of 
the Old School, and several new ones, etc., etc. To which are 
added Observations on Short Whist, etc., etc., by an Experi- 
enced Player. Philadelphia : Isaac M. Moss, 1844. pp. 96. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 33 

Whist Score Book, a simple method of keeping Tally. New 
York: C. C. Shelley, [18S1]. 

Whist Triad, The; comprising Cavendish's Laws and Princi- 
ples; Baldwin's Law^s of Short Whist ; Clay's Treatise, a7id 
Pole's Philosophy of Whist. London : De La Rue, 1884. 
sm. 8vo. 

Whistology. All the Year Round, ii. 480-484; March 17, 
i860.* ' 

W., J. R. The A B C of Whist. New York : Scribner, Wel- 
ford, & Armstrong.* 

Whist. London : Warne ; New York : Scribner, W el- 
ford, «&: Co. [1872 }\ pp. 92, i6mo, illust. 

Young, Major. See T. Matthews. 



WHIST SCORES 



AND 



CARD-TABLE TALK 



GAMES AND GAMING BEFORE CARDS. 




IT would seem that from the first men have 
found a peculiar satisfaction in submitting 
themselves to the guidance of a power they 
do not understand. Thus, lots were early cast to de- 
cide matters of religion, of state, and of the home ; 
and chance soon became a favorite factor in the sports 
that were devised to pass away time not spent in work 
or war. " Plutarch would lead us to beheve that dice 
were a very early invention in Egypt, and acknowledged 
to be so by the Egyptians themselves, since they were 
introduced into one of their oldest mythological fables, 
— Mercury being represented playing at dice with the 
Moon previous to the birth of Osiris, and winning from 
her the five days of the epact, which were added to 
complete the three hundred and sixty-five days of the 
year." (Wilkinson and Birch, Anc. Egypt., ii. 62.) 
The Egyptians were also fond of playing a game re- 
sembhng draughts, calling the pieces, or men, '' dogs," 



36 



WHIST SCORES AND 



^ 






^ 






>l 






^ 



v^ 



1 .^■ 






^ 
^ 



^^ 



. Si 

8 •<§ 



-S 









1 , 




Rubbers •-' 


c^ 


CO 


Games 


CO 




Tt 


r^ 


Points 






5- 


CO 

00 










2 
< 

o 
H 


CO 


CO 


N N Tl- 


** 

00 


ro ro 


vO 


^ CO 


* 












CO Tj- 




c^ c^ 




lO CO 


s, 


C^ Tt- 


MD 




Tf « ^ vD 


(^ lO 






>^ CO 


* 

00 


t-H M 


CO 




l-l C^ l-H 


^ 


i * 

1 











^ 



CARD-TABLE TALK. 



37 



as the Arabs do. Some of these are still in existence, 
as also a board formed of a solid block of wood, hav- 
ing the squares cut on the top surface, and hollowed 
out so as to admit a drawer containing the '' dogs." 
The game was common to the huts of the poor and 
the mansions of the rich. As early as the reign of 
Usertesen I., whom Wilkinson considers coeval with 
Joseph, or nearly 2000 b. c, in a grotto on the eastern 
bank of the Nile were sculptured two persons playing 
at draughts. (Anc. Egypt., i. 32.) 

Similar games were known to the Greeks, and one 
of them thf y were fond of representing as invented 
by Palamedes while the Grecian hosts lay encamped 
about Troy. Such games were also played at Rome, 
and sanctioned by the law. But dice-playing, at which 
large sums were squandered, was interdicted ; and the 
law offered no protection to persons who allowed gam- 
ing in their houses, not even in case of robbery and 
actual violence. (Becker's Gallus.) But in the cor- 
rupt days of Rome, gambling and unfair playing be- 
came very common. Caius Caligula practically turned 
the imperial palace into a gambling-house. On one 
occasion he condemned to death several rich Gauls^ 
and at once returning to the gaming-table, said, '^ I 
pity you when I see you lose a few sestertii ; while 
with a stroke of the pen I have just won six hundred 
millions." Seneca pictures the gambling Emperor 
Claudius in hades, doomed to play forever with a 
bottomless dice-box, and to suffer the repeated disap- 
pointment of his ever-reawakened hopes. Nero is said 



38 



WHIST SCORES AND 





^ 






^ 






Rubbers 










Games 








Points 


















CO 

1 


















































































CARD-TABLE TALK. 39 

to have staked four hundred thousand sestertii on a 
single throw of the dice. The convulsion of nature 
which overwhelmed Pompeii surprised a party of gen- 
tlemen at the hazard-table, where they were discovered 
two thousand years after, with the dice firmly clasped 
in their fists. (Apperley, xvii. 271.) There are still 
preserved Roman silver dice, in the form of a human 
being, so bent over that, like cubes, they must fall in 
one of six ways. Strangely, the same fancy was sug- 
gested long after to a German, who carved quite a dif- 
ferent figure out of boxwood, which makes even a 
better die. 

Tacitus tells us that the ancient Germans were much 
addicted to gambhng, and would stake their property, 
and even their lives, upon the throw of a die. More- 
over, they looked upon their folly as a matter of honor, 
much as German students to-day regard duelling. If 
losers, they submitted with dignity to being bound and 
sold into slavery. (Germania, xxiv.) 

Before the introduction of cards, tables (our back- 
gammon) and dames (our draughts or checkers) were 
common in Europe. But the favorite games were dice 
and chess. Dice were much played by men, and im- 
mense sums were lost and won ; but those who made 
a business of dicing were not well regarded. On the 
other hand, chess and professional chess-players were 
highly thought of, though even at this game the custom 
was to play for stakes, and these often large. Every 
knight and every lady that moved in courtly circles had 
to understand chess, and children were practised in it 



40 



WHIST SCORES AND 





^ 






^^ 






Rubbers 








Games 










Points 


















c/f 

< 















































































5; 



CARD-TABLE TALK, 4 1 

from their earliest years. Dice were made of ivory, 
the cheaper ones of bone ; and the playing is said to 
have been done upon a marble plate or board. The 
chess-men, which were very large, were carved out of 
ivory and ebony, or out of precious stones of two dif- 
ferent colors. Chess-boards were made of elm or 
ivory, and not seldom of gold and silver. They, too, 
were very large, and, it is said, fit to use as shields in 
case of need. The game was often the cause of fatal 
quarrels, and the romances of the twelfth and thirteenth 
centuries give graphic accounts of heads being beaten 
in with chess-men or cleaved open with chess-boards. 
(Schultz, Das hofische Leben, i. 416.) We smile when 
we read that about the year 1180 Count Siboto von 
Falkenstein bequeathed to his heirs twenty feather- 
beds, three chess-boards, three dice-boards, and the 
accompanying ivory pieces and dice. 

"• We often read of men who got into the taverner's 
hands, playing as well as drinking themselves naked \ 
and in a well-known manuscript of the beginning of 
the fourteenth century we find an illumination which 
represents this process very Hterally. One of the two 
players is already perfectly naked, while the other is 
reduced to his shirt. The illuminator appears to have 
intended to represent them as playing against each 
other till neither had anything left, — like the two 
celebrated cats of Kilkenny, which ate one another 
up, until nothing remained but their tails.'* (Wright, 
Domestic Manners, ii. 15.) 



42 



WHIST SCORES AND 





^ 






^ 






Rubbers 










Games 










Points 




































1 






























































CARD-TABLE TALK. 43 




THE HISTORY OF PLAYING-CARDS. 

ORIGIN. 

F all devices for adapting to sports the ele- 
ment of chance, no other appears to 
have been so successful as playing-cards. 
Whence they came, is still a matter of uncertainty, 
though numerous theories have been advanced as to 
their origin. It has often been claimed that they first 
came into use in the East, — in India or China, — 
and tliat they were brought to Spain by the Saracens, 
or came into Europe in the hands of fortune-telHng 
Gypsies. It is true that cards have long been used 
in China and in India, and it cannot be denied that 
these have points of marked likeness to European 
cards ; but this does not prove that the latter were 
derived from the former, any more than it proves the 
reverse. Moreover, the Koran's strict prohibition of 
all games of chance and of the representation of the 
human form makes it unlikely that the Saracens were 
the circulators of playing-cards. " Even now those 
Mohammedans who play openly with cards are of 
the sect of the Shiites, or followers of Ali, belonging 
to India and Persia, and regarded with suspicion by 



44 



WHIST SCORES AND 





^ 






^ 






Rubbers 










Games 






Points 










1 

! 


1 


c/T 

1 












































































I- 



CARD-TABLE TALK. 45 

the more faithful followers of the Prophet. The latter, 
when they so far forget themselves as to play, do so 
in secret." (Willshire, p. 10.) But the supposition 
that cards were brought from India by the Gypsies — 
while, to be sure, only a supposition — cannot be dis- 
proved by saying, as Willshire does, that " cards wxre 
known in Europe before 141 7, the year that the first 
Gypsies made their appearance in Europe ; " for it is 
now settled that Gypsies were common in Austria and 
other parts of Eastern Europe long before that time. 
(Encyc. Brit., 9th ed.) Chatto argues that cards are 
but a development of chess, as certain card-games have 
a decided resemblance to it ; but it is more likely that 
these games, not cards themselves, w^ere modelled after 
chess. " Resorting to China for the origin of cards is 
only another mission to the ^ refuge for the destitute.' 
At any rate, we are justified in assuming that if, in the 
Celestial Empire, cards really had a separate and early 
birth, Europe had not any more hand in robbing her 
of that progeny than she had in taking from her gun- 
powder, printing, and engraving, — all of which, with 
other things, are considered by some to have been 
originally Chinese inventions." (Willshire, p. 11.) 

The most recent critics are practically unanimous in 
discarding the various theories as to the oriental origin 
of our playing-cards, and are of the opinion that, what- 
ever may be the history of cards in India and China, 
European cards had their origin in Europe, and that 
it is more than probable that they were gradually 
developed from the picture-cards called naibis. 



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NAIBIS, OR TAROTS. 



47 



These were picture-cards, the use of which is un- 
certain. A series, or pack, usually contained twenty- 
two, with the following emblematic figures : — 



I. A Juggler. 


12. A Man hanging by his P'oot. 


2. A Popess. 


13. Death (or Time). 


3. An Empress. 


14. Temperance. 


4. An Emperor. 


15. The Devil. 


5. A Pope. 


16. A Tower struck by Lightning. 


6. Lovers. 


17. A large Star. 


7. A Charioteer. 


18. The Moon. 


8. Justice. 


19. The Sun. 


9. A Hermit. 


20. The Last Judgment. 


10. The Wheel of Fortune. 


21. The World. 


II. Force. 


22. A Fool. 



What was the origin of the tarots is a most interest- 
ing question, and upon it will depend the decision as 
to the ultimate origin of European cards. Certain 
writers (M. Court de Gebelin, Eliphas J^evi, and 
others) have studied the tarots as a branch of thau- 
raaturgic knowledge, and assert that these emblematic 
figures had a very remote origin, — '* an origin stretch- 
ing as far back, indeed, as the ancient Egyptians, from 
whom they have descended to us as a book or series of 
subjects of deep symbolic meaning. Some of these 
subjects have in the course of time, however, become 
somewhat changed or metamorphosed, yet leaving 
traces in sufficiency of the original symbols by which 



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49 



those learned in archaeology and illuminism may es- 
tabhsh their true nature." (Willshire, p. 138.) The 
most ancient cards that have come down to us are 
tarots ; they are four in number, and were probably 




| g:^'Li:MPEREVR^ E3 



TAROT, THE EMPEROR. 
(British Museum, Catl., PL i.) 



made about 1425 in Venice. Tarots are some- 
times as large as seven by four inches, some being on 
thick cardboard, and others on very thin paper. Their 
old name, fiazbis, is probably preserved in naypes, the 
Spanish name for cards. 

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51 



To furnish entertainment for children and older 
persons, and especially to keep or wean them from 
dice-playing, it would seem that a game was devised 
by combining fifty-six numeral cards with these twenty- 




TAROT, MAN HANGING BY HIS FOOT. 
(British Museum, Catl., P!. iii.) 



two tarot-cards. The game, becoming rapidly popular, 
spread from Venice, its native place, and was soon 
modified in various ways. There thus arose in Italy 
three or four tarot-games, two of which are still played 
to a considerable extent in northern Italy, and occa- 



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53 



sionally in France and Germany. By more decided 
modifications and the reduction of the pack from 
seventy-eight to fifty-two, playing-cards, substantially 
as we have them to-day, are believed to have come 
into existence. (Cavendish, Card Essays, p. 48.) 



NUMERAL CARDS. 

The full set of numeral cards was divided into four 
suits or colors. The original symbols by which these 
suits were distinguished were cicps., mo?iey, clubs, and 
swords; and these still appear on Spanish cards. 
(Willshire, p. 30.) The Germans early adopted hearts 
or red, leaves or gree?i, bells.^ and acorns ; while the 
French favored hearts, diamonds, trefoil, and spear- 
heads. Cards having the French suits are now exten- 
sively made and used in Germany, and are the only 
ones to be found among English-speaking peoples ; 
but to trefoil and spear-heads we give names derived 
from the Spanish pack, — chchs and spades (Spanish 
espadas = swords), which on Spanish cards are real 
clubs and swords. Furthermore, books, flowers, ani- 
mals, and various other things have in their time 
served to m^ark suits. Of course it is evident that 
the ^^ spades" on our cards are but a variety of the 
"leaves" on German cards, and their round "bells," 
of the Spanish " coins ; " while the common origin 
of "acorns," "trefoil," and our "clubs" is easily 
seen. 



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CARD-TABLE TALK, 55 



FIRST MENTION. 



The first positive mention of playing-cards as such is 
in an account of Charles Poupart, treasurer of Charles 
VI. of France, which monarch was so unfortunate as 
to become more or less deranged in consequence of 
a sun -stroke. The item says that fifty- six sols were 
paid '' Jacquemin Gringonneur, painter, for three packs 
of cards, gilt and colored and variously ornamented, 
for the amusement of the king." The date of the 
entry is Feb. i, 1392. This was at one time supposed 
to prove the French origin of cards ; but it has long ago 
been pointed out that the payment evidently was for 
the painting of the cards, and not for their invention. 



CARDS IN CHINA. 

The Chinese have a tradition that cards were de- 
vised for the amusement of the numerous concubines 
of their imperial ruler Seun-ho. " In the Chinese 
dictionary entitled Ching-tsze-tung, compiled by Eul- 
koung, and first published a. d. 1678, it is said that 
the cards now known in China as Teen-tsze-pae, or 
dotted cards, were invented in the reign of Seun-ho, 
1 120 ; and that they began to be common in the reign 
of Kaou-tsung, who ascended the throne in 1131." 
(Chatto, Facts, etc., p. 55.) The Chinese pack Tsee?i- 
wan-jin-pae, or '' a thousand times ten thousand men's 



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57 



names cards/' contains the names of persons famous in 
Chinese history. The suits are chains, arms, money, 
and human beings, and are usually printed in black 




(2) 





CHINESE PLAYING-CARDS. 



(i) Suit of Chains (National Museum). 

(2) Suit of Horses, having the sign of a Fish (British Museum, Catl., Plate 

xxi.). 

(3) Forty Thousand Cords of the suit of Wood (National Museum). 



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59 



on flexible cardboard. The cards are small and 
narrow in proportion to their length, being seldom 
wider than one inch. Fig. (i) represents one of a 
peculiarly attractive pack. See also vignette, title- 
page. 

CARDS OF INDIA AND PERSIA. 




KING OF WHITE OR MOONS. 

Hindustani Pack. 
(Chatto, PI. i.) 

The tradition among the Hindus as to the origin of 
their cards is that they were invented by a favorite 
sultana^ or queen, to wean her husband from a bad 
habit he had acquired of pulling or eradicating his 
beard. (Chatto, Facts, etc., p. 44.) Hindu cards 
usually have eight suits, — crowns, white (moons). 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. 6 1 

sabres, slaves, harps, red (suns) , diplomas, merchandise. 
In a unique pack of ten suits, the emblems are those of 
the ten avatars, or incarnations, of Vishnu, the second 
person in the Hindu trinity. (Chatto, p. 36.) Singer 
gives illustrations of beautiful Persian cards deHcately 
painted on ivory and illuminated with gold. And 
Merlin gives (pi. 74, p. 124) five samples from another 
Persian pack, which are neatly painted on carton va-nis, 
and represent the shah^ or king, the bibi, or queen, the 
couli, or dancer, a Hon, and serbas, or soldier. The 
cards of Teheran are of the ordinary shape, but Hindu 
and Persian cards are usually circular, and average two 
and a half inches in diameter, the suits being dis- 
tinguished by different colors as well as by different 
emblems. (Willshire, p. 55.) Nevertheless an Ameri- 
can seems to have had no difficulty in getting a patent 
on circular cards which distinguish the suits in this 
way. Circular cards were also made in Germany in 
the second half of the fifteenth century. 

THE MATERIAL. 

The cheaper cards among Oriental peoples are made 
of dried leaves ; others are prepared from leather — as 
are those of the Apache Indians — or by painting and 
polishing little sheets of canvas. Still other Eastern 
cards are thin tablets of wood, ivory, or metal. Em- 
broidered silk cards are said to have been exhibited at 
Kensington, England, and Willshire was assured by a 
dealer that cards of tortoise-shell and of small tiles had 



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CARD-TABLE TALK, (^2, 

passed through his hands. Moreover, Merlin gives 
copies of thirty-four cards consisting of silver plates, 
which were at the time in his possession. 

The earliest European cards were painted, and some 
of them by painters of great abihty in their time. It 
is on record that a set of cards '' containing figures of 
the gods with their emblematic animals, and figures of 
birds likewise, was painted for Filippo Visconti, duke 
of Milan, in the early part of the fifteenth century, and 
cost fifteen hundred pieces of gold." Stencils early 
supplanted painting in the more rapid production of 
cards. 

THE FIRST MAKERS. 

The years just preceding and following 1400 saw 
not only the beginnings of cards in Europe, but also the 
first attempts at wood- engraving. From the first, the 
card-maker and the wood-engraver seem to have been 
as intimately connected as were the old barbers and sur- 
geons ; and it has been held by some of the leading 
critics, — Heineken, Von Murr, and Leber, that the 
figures on cards were the first impressions made with 
blocks, and that the printing of images of the saints, and 
wood-engraving in general, as well as the printing of 
books and papers, are but developments of this humble 
art. This has not, however, been proved, and we know, 
as stated above, that cards were made by painting and 
by means of stencils for a long time before they were 
printed from blocks. 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. 



65 



CARDS AND CARD-MAKING IN GERMANY. 




QUEEN OF HARES. 

North German Pack, about 1500. 

(British Museum, Catl., 210, Chatto, 221.) 

Nlirnberg, Augsburg, and Ulm were early noted for 
the manufacture of playing-cards, and during the fif- 
teenth century did a large export business, the cards 
usually being sent to other countries packed in little 
casks. At Niirnberg many of the card-makers were 
women. xA.s the art of engraving advanced, cards were 
favored with the best efforts of some of the most skilful 
of German engravers. They often introduced about the 

5 



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67 




KING OF GREEN, OR LEAVES. 

Old Style Piquet Pack, Recent Make. 

Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany. 

(National Museum.) 



pips, or spots, figures of men and women, quadrupeds, 
birds, vines and foliage, and the like. "These orna- 
mental appendages are frequently of a grotesque char- 
acter, and are sometimes indecent." (Chatto, p. 236.) 
The Cartes Allemandes, jeii Lilliputien en Arge//t, 



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69 



represented in Merlin's work, measure only five eighths 
by three eighths of an inch. The Germans call cards 




TEN OF ACORNS. 

Old Style Piquet Pack, Recent Make. 

Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany. 

(National Museum.) 



Karten, or Spielkarten. also Briefe, and a pack of cards 
ein Spiel Karten. Early cards had king, queen, cavalier, 
and fante, or man-servant. But German and Spanish 



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n 




THREE OF BELLS. 

Saxon Pack, 1511. 
(Biblioth^que Nationale, Taylor, Plate xvii.) 



cards, like Oriental cards, have no queen. In the cards 
of other peoples, however, the cavalier was dropped, 
and the queen retained. 



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73 



SPANISH CARDS AND THEIR DERIVATIVES. 




FIVE OF CUPS. 

Mexican (Puebla) Pack of Spanish Cards, 1883. 
(National Museum, 73,737.) 



The people of Spain were among the first Europeans 
to domesticate cards ; but we know little of their man- 
ufacture in that country. According to De la Vega, 



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75 




THREE OF MONEY. 

Spanish (Barcelona) Pack, 1850. 
(National Museum, 74,734.) 



when in want of cards at Santo Domingo, the Spaniards 
resorted to leaves and leather to provide themselv*es. 
Herrera mentions that upon the conquest of Mexico 
by the Spaniards, Montezuma took great pleasure in 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. 



77 



seeing them play at cards ; this was in 15 19. (Chatto, 
Facts, etc., p. 106.) And tradition has it that cards 
were played upon the ship in which Columbus made 




KING OF CLUBS. 

Mexican (Puebla) Pack of Spanish Cards, 1883. 
(National Museum, 73,737.) 

his first voyage to America. Spanish cards are also 
used in Spanish America and in those parts of the 



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79 



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CARD-TABLE TALK, 



8i 



United States which border upon Mexico. The In- 
dians there also play the Spanish games and prepare 




SEVEN OF SWORDS. 

Spanish (Barcelona) Pack, 1850. 
(National Museum, 74,734.) 



cards of native-tanned buckskin, which are rude copies 
of the Spanish cards. There are several packs of these 
leather cards, in excellent condition, in the National 

6 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. 



83 



Museum at Washington. From one of these packs a 
copy is here given of the king of clubs, together with 




SEVEN OF SWORDS. 

Italian Pack (reduced). 
(British Museum, Catl., Plate ix.) 



the corresponding Spanish card from which it is de- 
rived ; also the knave of clubs from the same pack, 
and the knight of money from another. 



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CARD-TABLE TALK, 



CARDS OF ITALY. 



H 



Early Italian cards were spoken of in treating of the 
origin of playing-cards. One of the distinctive points 
in Italian cards is the interweaving of the marks of 
the suits on the numeral cards. To show this the 
seven of swords {spadd) of the ItaHan pack is given, 
with the corresponding card of the Spanish pack. 
Modern Italian cards are said to be stout and inflex- 
ible. Some of them have a narrow ridge of paper on 
the edge of the face-side, in order to protect it from 
being soiled. 

• 

CARDS IN FRANCE. 

The French were quite independent in their treat- 
ment of cards. About 1500 they began the practice 
of placing on cards the names of well-known persons. 
Among them the most common were David, Hector, 
Alexander, Rachel, Pallas, Judith, Helen, Venus, Caesar, 
and Charles the Great. No attempt was made to 
observe chronological or national consistency. The 
French Revolution changed cards with everything else. 
The kings became philosophers, valets were replaced 
by Roman heroes, while the queens were transformed 
into virtues and liberties, — liberties of marriage, of 
worship, of the press, etc. Even Napoleon deigned 
to make regulations as to the devices on playing-cards. 
Playing-cards manufactured in France and in Switzer- 
land are usually smaller and more delicate than those 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. 87 

in general use in other countries. The French call 
cards cartes a jouer^ and a pack of cards U7i jeu de 
cartes. 



CARDS IN ENGLAND. 

Into England cards were brought from France and 
Spain. Originally the figures were fair representations 
of kings and queens in the attire of the day. But the 
costumes of the time of Henry VII.. with some incor- 
porations of a later date, became stereotyped (much as 
did the Enghsh spelhng of the seventeenth century), 
and were executed in so unskilful a manner that they 
degenerated into the strange-looking caricatures now 
mostly to be seen. During the past fifty years various 
endeavors have been made to replace these by more 
sensible figures ; but such efforts have met with little 
support, and Messrs. De La Rue & Co., the leading 
Enghsh manufacturers, after losing heavily, gave up the 
attempt. As Taylor says, the knave of clubs still holds 
his arrow, head-end up, but it has become distorted 
into a bed-post, and its feathers are gone. One change 
from the older style of cards has met with favor, — the 
substitution of two upper half-figures for one full-length 
figure. Thus the card is more easily recognized, how- 
ever it may fall. It has been suggested that the instru- 
ment held by some knaves of spades is a kind of 
spring-fork^ formerly used by constables to catch run- 
away offenders. What are called in America the '' spots " 
on cards, are in England termed *'pips " or "singles.'* 



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CARD-TABLE TALK, 89 

They have also been called *^ points/' and in Seymour's 
time "drops." (Compleat Gamester, p. 49.) In 
Shakspeare's " Henry VI./' Part HI. act v. sc. i., we 
read : — 

*^ But whiles he thought to steal the single ten, 
The king was slyly finger'd from the deck ! " 

" Deck " is the proper word for a pack of cards orderly 
piled. Though at one time much used thoughout 
England and properly defined in almost every English 
dictionary, the word has been forgotten by the dwellers 
in southern England, and so Bartlett, the good shep- 
herd of " Americanisms," has kindly adopted it into 
his fold. 



CARDS WITH A SECONDARY PURPOSE. 

x^t an early day there were cards devised with a 
secondary purpose. Of these the would-be instructive 
cards are the most interesting. There were cards 
designed to teach arithmetic, grammar, geography, 
history, heraldry, mythology, astrology, astronomy, 
military science, and almost every branch of human 
knowledge. The " author cards " of our time belong 
to this class. Toward the end of the seventeeth cen- 
tury, a London manufacturer announced : '' These 
cards are ingeniously contrived for the comprising the 
general rules of Lilhe's Grammar, in the four principal 
parts thereof, viz. Orthographia^ Prosodia, Eiymolo- 
gia, and Syntaxis, thereby rendering it very useful to 
all Persons and that have already the Latine Tongue, 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. 



91 



for the recollecting their memories, and also for the 
better Improvement of such as have made some begin- 
nings in the study thereof, besides the Divertisement 




Lcnijox Scott Vutcfies 
of B^cct^h 



QUEEN OF CLUBS. 

Scottish Heraldic Pack, 1691 
(Taylor, Plate xxxix.) 



which they afford in all our Enghsh games for the 
other common cards." In the beginning of the pres- 
ent century sl similar pack was dedicated, '' with most 
humble submission, to every respectable person in the 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. 93 

British Empire." In December, 1692, the London 
papers advertised : — 

" The Genteel Housekeeper's Pastime^ or the mode of 
Carving at Table represented in a pack of playing-cards, 
with a book by which any ordinary capacity may learn 
how to cut up or carve in mode all the most usual dishes 
of flesh, fish, fowl, and baked meats, with the several 
sawces and garnishes proper to each dish of meat.. Price 
\s, 6d. Sold by J. Moxom, Warwick Lane.'' 

Of comical cards there is no end, and even in our 
own day a number of such packs have been pubhshed, 
displaying considerable ingenuity. *^ French cards," 
or such as show when held toward the light a picture, 
which usually is indecent, are distributed by unscrupu- 
lous persons, especially in boys' schools. There have 
been cards devised for the use of ecclesiastics ; and 
more recently cards for the use of the blind have been 
contrived, with spots and figures shghtly raised. These 
were first prepared for a member of the English royal 
family, and are only made to order. 



UNIQUE CARDS. 

Willshire describes a unique pack of modem French 
cards in the British Museum. They are but one and 
three quarters inches by seven eighths of an inch, very 
dehcate and pliable, and capable of being carried in a 
purse or the vest-pocket, or concealed in the palm of 
the hand beneath the glove. The pack is enclosed in 
a delicate lilac-colored and glazed paper case. 



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95 



In 1 85 1 a pack of cards valued at a thousand 
pounds was exhibited in London. The designs were 
by Mr. Owen Jones, and consisted of the monograms 
of the different members of the reigning house, wreathed 
with emblematical flowers. 

In Willshire's work is a description of a pack of 
sensational cards published in the United States. 
Kings, queens, and knaves are supplanted by army 
officers and goddesses of liberty ; and on a title-card 
is to be read : " National Emblems ; something new 
in the card world. . . . Time for a change. Foreign 
Emblems used long enough in the U. S.," and much 
more '^ of a very vulgar character." But what is 
most amusing is, that Dr. Willshire quotes in full the 
old copyright formula, "• Entered according to Act of 
Congress," etc., and regards it as a legislative author- 
ization and approval of the cards on the part of our 
government ! 

CARD ODDITIES. 

At one time it was customary to give books and 
pamphlets titles derived from card-playing, just as 
sermons were preached with card term.inology. The 
following is the title-page of a pamphlet as to the 
struggles of Charles I. : '* The bloody Game at Cards, 
As it was played betwixt the King of Hearts And the 
rest of His Suite, against the residue of the packe of 
Cards, Wherein Is discovered where faire play was 
plaid, and where was fowle. Shuffled at London, Cut 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. 97 

at Westminster, Dealt at Yorke, and Plaid in the open 
field, by the City-clubs, the Country Spade-men, Rich 
Diamond Men, and Loyall Hearted Men." 

In the early part of this century a card almanac was 
published at Tlibingen. In one set of cards there 
given, the heroes and heroines of ancient mythology, 
serving as court-cards, are comically travestied. Ju- 
piter sits smoking in an arm-chair and wears a mam- 
moth wig, while Juno is decked out with feathers and 
a parasol. 

PECULIAR USES OF CARDS. 

In the time of Charles II. playing-cards were used 
for the purpose of advertising. Moreover, inasmuch 
as servants often made mistakes in carrying verbal 
messages, it became customary in both England and 
America to write notes and invitations on the backs of 
old playing-cards or parts of cards ; for English cards 
generally had plain backs. Such an invitation to a 
card-party, from the Countess of Northumberland, is 
printed from a copper-plate on the back of a ten of 
spades, and at the bottom are added the words, '' With- 
out a hoop, if agreeable." It is perhaps still more 
interesting to learn that this is also the origin of visit- 
ing-cards. A part of an old playing-card, with their 
'' name and quality " printed on the reverse, was pre- 
sented by the nobility as well as by the gentry, when 
calling upon their friends. Not long ago an old house 
in Dean Street, Soho, London, was undergoing repairs, 

7 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. 99 

in the course of which a marble chimney-piece was 
removed, and there were thus brought to Hght several 
such visiting-cards, one of which bore the name of 
Sir Isaac Newton. 



MANUFACTURE OF PLAYING-CARDS. 

Playing-cards are now usually prepared in the fol- 
lowing way. The card-boards are made of a sort of 
cartridge-paper stuck between two sheets of white or 
tinted paper. This must then undergo a prolonged 
process of drying, and afterward pass through polished 
iron rollers and be subjected to a pressure of eight 
hundred tons. In this way the cards are made straight 
and even, and acquire a considerable pohsh. The 
polish is not made just alike on both sides, for it has 
been found that two equally polished surfaces do not 
so easily ghde over one another. An ivory appearance 
is sometimes given by preparing the face of the paper 
with a composition of size and French white. Each 
manufacturer has his own process, and tries to keep it 
from others. The impressions are made from blocks 
of wood or stone, much as ordinary printing is done. 
When several colors are to appear in one picture, as 
many blocks are used, each printing its own color, and 
in just the right place. The gilt lines sometimes seen 
are produced by scattering gold-dust over the card 
after the desired figure has been printed in colorless 
size ; the dust adheres to the size only, and thus the 
gilt figure appears. 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. loi 




CARD-GAMES OTHER THAN WHIST. 

(Condensed from Willshire, 21-24, and Cavendish's Essays, 54-70.) 

SSUMING that the original game of all was 
the tarocchi of Venice, played with seventy- 
eight cards (fifty- six numerals and twenty- 
two tarots), the first alteration was probably made by 
the Florentines, who increased the emblematic pieces 
to forty-one, and invented the game of minchiate with 
ninety-seven cards. Later the Bolognese diminished 
the pack to sixty-two. The game played with these 
cards was called tarocchino. Then the Venetians re- 
duced the number of cards still more, and established 
the game of trappola. No nations seemed content to 
adopt 671 bloc any game as it travelled to them. Though 
the varieties introduced were marvellously ingenious 
and numerous, the old fundamental elements were 
maintained in most instances so closely that there is 
no great difficulty in tracing the pedigrees of the prin- 
cipal modern games, owing to their easily recognized 
family likenesses to older ones. Very early primero 
was played at Florence and at Rome, and soon spread 
to France and to England, where it was very popular 
in the time of Elizabeth. From primero grew post 
and pair ^ and from this brag, which in America devel- 
oped into the famous betting-garne oi poker. 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. 103 

In Germany, hvisqueiiet, or La?idsknechtspiel^ was a 
favorite, and by some authorities is called the national 
German card-game. It is, in fact, hardly a game at 
all, but merely a complicated way of playing pitch-and- 
toss with cards instead of coins ; and this remark 
appHes to every game of chance, from basset to rouge- 
et-noir (roozh-a-nwor) . In Germany Landsknechtspiel 
seems to have been the most usual pitch-and-toss 
card-game ; but to elevate it to the dignity of a 
national card-game, is to treat it with a respect it does 
not deserve. 

The national game of Spain was and is ombre 
(om-br). It is played by three persons with forty 
cards, the tens, nines, and eights being discarded. It 
is a very complicated game, and introduced an entirely 
new feature, — that of playing with a partner or ally, 
instead of, as in the older games, every man's hand (in 
two senses) being against every one's else. Ombre is 
a game of great merit, and was much played at one 
time in France and England. Piquet (pee-ket) and 
ecarte (a-cart-a) may be regarded as especially 
French games. The former is probably derived from 
the Saxon game Schwerier Karte. Ecarte was indi- 
rectly derived from triomphe {trionfi is mentioned as 
early as 1526). Triomphe, brought to America by 
French settlers, developed into euchre^ — at one time 
the national game in the United States. The game of 
triomphe, or French-ruff, must not be confused with 
the English game of trumps or riiff-aiid-hoiiors, the 
predecessor of whist, the national game of England. 



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105 




CARDING AND GAMING IN FRANCE. 

AMBLING, says an old French proverb, is the 
child of avarice and the father of despair; 
Ij and, as some one suggests, not anywhere 
have there been more affectionate offspring than in 
the country that gave the saying birth. In early days 
gambling in France was confined to the court and the 
mansions of the great; but here it became so fasci- 
nating that it often happened that individuals found it 
necessary to put themselves under voluntary bonds not 
to play at cards or dice, — as people nowadays sign a 
teetotaler's pledge, except that there w^as a penalty in 
case of failure. '' In the latter part of the sixteenth 
century Paris was inundated with brigands of every 
description. A band of Italian gamesters, having been 
informed by their correspondents that Henry III. had 
estabhshed card-rooms and dice-rooms in the Louvre, 
got admission at court, and won thirty thousand crowns 
from the king." (Steinmetz, i. 75.) Henry IV., '^ good 
King Henry," was passionately fond of gaming, and 
even patronized notorious cheats. During his reign 
gambling spread to all classes of society and became 
the rage. Louis XIII. disapproved of games of chance 
and suppressed, to a large extent, gaming among the 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. 107 

people ; at court it continued in a quiet way. But 
Louis was very fond of chess, and in order to play on 
his journeys, had a chess-board fixed up in his car- 
riage, the pieces being provided with pins at the 
bottom, so as not to shp from the board. Mazarin 
re-established gaming at the court of Louis XIV. It 
now became practically an institution of state, and 
again involved all classes of society. Things went so 
far that extremely severe measures had to be resorted 
to to control gambling, at least in the army. Louis 
also established lotteries, and thereby the gambling 
spirit spread to individuals and classes that did not 
approach the gaming-tables. During the minority of 
Louis XV. the celebrated Scotchman John Law be- 
cam^e controller-general of France, and inaugurated 
those wild financial schemes which were to make 
everybody rich. Surely everybody became possessed 
of a mad passion to get money without earning it. 
When the schemes collapsed, the resulting anguish and 
disappointment sought requital at the gaming-table. 
Every one gambled, and gambled in everything he did. 
A man returning from the burial of his brother, at which 
he had exhibited the signs of profound grief, gambled 
and won. To the question, ^^ How do you feel now? " 
he answered, ^^A httle better; this consoles me." 
Louis XVI. hated gaming of any kind, but Marie 
Antoinette was fond of playing at cards, and encour- 
aged it. One of the favorite tricks in fine society at 
the time was to place a poKshed gold or silver snuff- 
box in such a position that it reflected an opponent's 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. 109 

cards. Fouche, Minister of Police under Napoleon I., 
derived an income of about six hundred thousand 
dollars a year from licensing gaming-houses. The 
attendants at the gaming-tables — a hundred and 
twenty thousand in number — were also required to 
act as spies of Fouche. But Jan. i, 1838, gambling 
was prohibited by law in France, and is now carried 
on only in secret. 

'' Whist was a favorite game with Josephine and 
Marie Louise, and it is on record that Napoleon used 
to play whist in Wlirtemberg, but not for money, and 
that he played ill and inattentively." Of gaming he 
positively disapproved ; but during his exile he spent 
nearly every evening playing at whist or vt?igt-et-im. 
'' x\fter the Restoration, whist was taken up in France 
more enthusiastically. ^The nobles,' says a French 
writer, ' had gone to England to think, and they brought 
back the thinking game with them.' Charles X. is 
reported to have been playing whist at St. -Cloud, on 
July 29, 1830, when the tricolor was waving on the 
Tuileries, and he had lost his throne." (Cavendish, 
Laws, etc., 52.) 

In Paris the stakes at whist are low compared with 
those at the London clubs. '' Count Achille Dela- 
marre calculated his average rubber at two hundred 
louis. . . . The principal players at the Union were Lord 
Granville (the English ambassador). Count Medem, 
Count Walewski, the Due de Richelieu, General 
Michelski, Comte Deschapelles (the author), Comte 
Achille Delamarre, and M. Bonpierre." (Hayward, 45.) 



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CARDING AND GAMING IN ENGLAND. 

I HE fact that the importation of playing-cards 
was forbidden in England in 1463, on com- 
plaint of home manufacturers, proves that 
they were then common in that country. The follow- 
ing, written Dec. 24, 1484, is interesting : — 

To 7ny ryght worsliipfiil husband, John Pas ton : 

Ryght worshipful husbond, — I recomaund me on- 
to you. Plese it you to wete [know] that I sent your 
eldest Sonne to my Lady Morlee to have knolage wat 
sports wer husyd [used] in her hows in kyrstemesse next 
folloyng aftyr the decysse of my lord, her husbond; and 
sche seyd that ther wer non dysgysyngs [masking], ner 
harpyng, ner lutyng, ner syngyn, ner non lowde dy sports, 
but pleyng at the tabyllys [backgammon], and schesse, 
and cards. Sweche dysports sche gave her folkys leve to 
play and non odyr. . . . 

Wretyn on Crestemes Evyn, 

By yor 

Margery Paston. 

Cards must have been common at the court of 
Henry VII.; for in 1503 his daughter Margaret, at 
the time fourteen years old, was found playing at cards 
by James IV. of Scotland, her betrothed, on his first 
interview with her. In the privy purse expenses of 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. II3 

Mary, daughter of Henry VIII., and afterward queen 
of England, there are numerous entries of money spent 
at the card-table. Queen EHzabeth also was a great 
card-player ; and in the literature of the time frequent 
reference is made to cards and card-playing. Primero 
was then the favorite game. " James I. played at cards 
as with affairs of state, — in an indolent manner, requir- 
ing in both cases some one to hold his cards, if not to 
prompt him what to play" (Chatto, 126). Mawe was 
the favorite game at the time of his reign. English 
gallants then diverted themselves with cards at the 
play-house before the performance began. 

The Puritans strongly opposed card-playing ; but 
after the Restoration the court went to the other ex- 
treme, and the greatest excesses were indulged in. 
John Evelyn, writing on the day James II. was pro- 
claimed king, expressed himself thus as to life at court 
under Charles II : "I can never forget the inexpressi- 
ble luxury and profaneness, gaming, and all dissolute- 
ness, and as it were total forgetfulness of God (it being 
Sunday evening), which this day se'nnight I was witness 
of, the King sitting and toying with liis concubines, 
Portsmouth, Cleveland, and Mazarine, etc., a French 
boy singing love-songs, in that glorious gallery, whilst 
about twenty of the great courtiers and other dissolute 
persons were at Basset round a large table, a bank of 
at least 2,000 in gold before them ; upon which two 
gentlemen who were with me made reflections with 
astonishment. Six days after, all was in the dust." 

x\fter the death of Charles there was a brief lull in 

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CARD-TABLE TALK. I15 

the ardor of the gaming world ; but it was soon revived, 
and spread to classes of society where it had not been 
known before. And now we begin to read frequently 
of women who were devoted to gaming. Moreover 
professional gamesters from any class of society were 
admitted among the aristocracy. The case of Bour- 
chier, at one time the footman of the Earl of Mulgrave, 
is to the point. " Once Mr. Bourchier, going over to 
Flanders with a great Train of Servants, set off in such 
a fine Equipage that they drew the Eyes of all upon 
them wherever they went, to admire the Splendor and 
Gaiety of their Master, whom they took for no less 
than a Nobleman of the first Rank. In this Pomp, 
making his Tour at king William's Tent, he happened 
into Play with that great Monarch, and won of him 
above ;^2,5oo. The Duke of Bavaria being also 
there, he took up the Cudgels, and losing ^15,000, the 
Loss put him in a great Chafe, and doubting some foul 
Play was put upon him, because Luck went so much 
against him, quoth y[x. Bpurchier : 'Sir, if you have 
any Suspicion of the least Sinister Trick put upon your 
Highness, if you please I '11 give you a Chance for all 
your Money at once, tossing up at Cross and Pile ; and 
you shall have the Advantage too of throwing up the 
Guinea yourself The Elector admir'd at his bold 
Challenge, which never the less accepting, he tossed up 
for ;^ 1 5,000, and lost the m.oney." (Lucas, Memoirs 
of Gamesters.) 

During the reign of Anne the government under- 
took to regulate gaming, but with little success. The 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. 117 

"Evening Post" for Oct. 12-14, 1702, contains the 
following : " An Inditement is presented against a 
Person in Westchester, for playing away his Wife to 
another Man, which was done with her own consent." 
During this reign, moreover, there was formed the 
famous "South-Sea Bubble" of John Law, which — if 
it be permitted so to express it — absorbed much of 
the gaming energy of the people during the following 
reign. When the bubble burst, it was found that thous- 
ands were ruined, and the House of Commons had to 
step in and do what it could to restore credit. But 
card-playing continued, and became even more general 
in every class of society. The preface to Seymour's 
" Compleat Gamester " begins : " Gaming is become 
fo much the fafliion amongfh the Beau-Mo7ide that 
he who, in Company, fhould appear ignorant of the 
Games in Vogue, would be reckoned low-bred, and 
hardly fit for Converfation." All memxbers of the 
family were devoted to it, and business and house- 
hold duties were neglected. Of course this did not 
escape the pen of the writers of dramas and satires 
(see page 271), to say nothing of the denunciations of 
the clergy. The following is abridged from a " censure 
of carding," published in the " Gentlemen's Magazine," 
June, 1735 • — 

A CARDING WOMAN is a fafhionable Monfler ; 
too co7n7noii to be carried about for a Shew, and 
too Ugly to bear looking at ; Elfe there is not among the 
Mtf-fhapeit, grwt Aniiitals, which are proclaim'd tui- 
natural by found of Trumpet, anything fo deteftably the 



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CARD-TABLE TALK, II9 

Reverfe of what fhe was intended for as this Rational 
Grimalkin I this voracious, dry Harpy in Mafqiierade ! 
this half human Tyger in Petticoats ! Let nobody tell 
me of the Refpect due to Ladies. . . . Thefe are no 
Ladies. . . . They have renounced whatever is tender and 
amiable in Woman ; and the rights of the Sex are advan- 
tages they are too manni/h to lay any claim to. I have 
ftruggled fo long to fuprefs my Refentuient that it has 
given me the Heart-Burn ; and I can contain myfelf no 
longer ; but am for executing all fuch incorrigible Of- 
fenders for High Treafon against Love and the Sexes 
Hereditary Right of Dominion. The Goths and Vandals 
were lefs barbarous dejlroyers, than thefe Dome/tic Sub- 
verters of Government. ... I pity the Hufbands, Sons 
and Daughters, great part of whofe Happinefs or Mifery 
in Life, is dependent on the Conduct of thefe good Chrif- 
tians, who may be, literally, faid to eat and drink, ajtd 
rife up to play. 

Another correspondent of the same magazine (Sep- 
tember, 1736) describes a '' polite family card-party '' as 
consisting '' moftly of two or three infignificant old 
Maids ; the fame Number of gay Widows in want of 
more Things than one ; a batter'd old Beau or two ; and 
fome decay'd Perfon of a good Family, made ufe 
of merely as a Cypher to carry on the Bufmefs, by 
having the Honour to be marry'd to the Lady, who 
to oblige her Friends and People of good Fafliion 
only, fuffers her houfe to be made ufe of for thefe 
Purpofes." 

It had been customary in France the century before 
for a woman during confinement to " keep her room 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. 1 21 

in State and with great ceremony, and receive there 
daily her female acquaintances, who passed the after- 
noon in gossip." (Wright, Dom. Manners, 481.) This 
custom had passed into England, but card-players 
took the place of gossiping ladies. In 1759 Walpole 
wrote : '' Loo is mounted to the zenith. The parties 
last till one and two in the morning. We played 
at Lady Hertford's last week, the last night of her 
lying-in, till deep into Sunday morning, after she 
and her lord were retired. It is now adjourned to 
Mrs. Fitzroy's, whose child the Town calls Pam€(\d.''' 
(a play on '^pam," an old name for the knave of 
clubs in loo and other games). Some years before 
this the fashion arose for children, too, to give card- 
parties, and toward the end of the century whist and 
casino were taught in fashionable boarding-schools. 

During the eighteenth century Bath was a fashion- 
able watering-place, and one of the principal localities 
of card-playing. This was due to the genius of that 
remarkable man Beau Nash. A notorious gamester 
and spendthrift, he somehow got a peculiar power at 
Bath, and was denominated the King of Bath ; and by 
certain rules and regulations, and their wise enforce- 
ment, raised the little country town with its mineral 
springs into the most fashionable resort of the day. 
The Corporation had a full-length portrait of Nash 
hung in the ball-room, with the bust of Newton on 
one side, and that of Pope on the other ; while his 
statue was placed in the pump-room. Here Mr. 
Pickwick is depicted playing whist with Mrs. Bolo 



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T23 



against the Dowager Lady Snuphanuph and Mrs. 
Colonel Wugsby. 

A great impetus y\'zs given to gaming in England 
at the end of the last century by the flood of penni- 
less wretches that poured in from France in conse- 
quence of the French Revolution. Gambling had 
become with them a second nature, and now they 
put their skill in this direction to use in gaining a 
living. ' About this time high play at whist became 
customary, especially at White's and Brooks's, then 
the most aristocratic and elegant of the London 
" hells." These were fitted up in great style ; the 
furniture alone of " Fishmongers' Hall," or Crock- 
ford's, is said to have cost about ^200,000, while its 
expenses were not far from $5,000 a week. The 
amount netted by the proprietor the first year was 
equal to $750,000. (Apperley, xvi. 23.) 

The great Fox was notorious as a gamester. At one 
time he is said to have played for twenty-two consecu- 
tive hours, losing on an average £^^00 an hour. So 
infatuated was he with the passion for deep play that 
he once declared that the greatest pleasure in life was 
to play and win ; the next, to play and lose. It was 
his reputation as an inveterate gambler, more than 
anything else, that deprived him of the confidence 
of the people. Major Aubrey, " no less distinguished 
for his love for than for his skill in almost every game 
that was in vogue, on first hearing the rattling of the 
dice-box, exclaimed, as Charles XIL of Sweden did 
when he first heard the whistling of bullets, ^This 



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CARD-TABLE TALK, 1 25 

henceforth shall be my music' Aubrey's favorite 
toast was, ^ Play ; like the air we breathe, if we have 
it not, we die.' '* (Apperiey, xvi. 13.) 

During the last century and the early part of the 
present ^^ betting was the prime amusement of all 
classes, and nothing was too trivial, ridiculous, or 
disgusting to bet upon. The utmost excitement would 
prevail, and ruinous sums were staked on which of 
two drops of rain coursing down the window-pane 
would sooner reach the bottom, or which of two 
maggots would achieve in a certain time the greater 
distance across the cheese-board. ^What will you 
lay?' was the question in everybody's mouth, and 
a bet settled every dispute. George IV., when Prince 
of Wales, lost ;^6,ooo on a race between twenty drakes 
and twenty geese ! A gambhng friend victimized him 
by inducing him to bet on the drakes, having himself 
wagered largely on the other side. A funny sight it 
must have been to see the heir-apparent to the Brit- 
ish throne urging his drakes on with a pole having 
a bit of red rag tagged to it, and strewing barley along 
the ground with his own royal hands, in the vain en- 
deavor to coax his rebelHous lieges from their too fre- 
quent roost in the trees by the wayside." (Nordhoff.) 

How the betting and gaming spirit had hardened 
men a few generations back may be seen from the 
following incidents : '' Horace Walpole relates that on 
a man falling down in a fit before the bay-window of 
White's, odds were instantly offered and taken to a 
large amount against his recovery, and that on its 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. 1 27 

being proposed to bleed him, the operation was vehe- 
mently resisted as unfair ! When Lord Thanet was in 
the Tower for the O'Conner riot, three friends — the 
Duke of Bedford, the Duke de Laval, and Captain 
Smith — were admitted to play whist with him and re- 
main till the lock-up hour of eleven. Early in the sit- 
ting Captain Smith fell back in a fit of apoplexy, and 
one of the party rose to call for help. ' Stop ! ' cried 
another, ' we shall be turned out if you make a noise. 
Let our friend alone till eleven. We can play dummy, 
and he '11 be none the worse ; for I can read death in 
his face.' " (Hayward, 459.) 

" There is a well-authenticated story of the late Lord 
Granville's devotion to whist. Intending to set out in 
the course of the afternoon for Paris, he ordered his 
carriage and four posters to be at Graham's at four. 
They were kept waiting till ten, when he sent out to 
say that he should not be ready for another hour or 
two, and that the horses had better be changed. They 
were changed three times in all, at intervals of six 
hours, before he started. When the party rose, they 
were up to their ankles in cards, and the ambassador 
(it was reported) was a loser to the tune of eight or 
ten thousand pounds. About this time there was a 
set at Brooks's who played hundred-guinea points, be- 
sides bets. We still occasionally hear of ;£^300 and 
^500 on the rubber ; but five-pound points are above 
the average, and many of the best players are content 
with two-pound points (ten, bet) at the Turf, and half 
pounds at the Portland." (Hayward, 456.) 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. 



129 




CARDING AND GAMING IN GERMANY. 

HE story of card-playing and gambling in Ger- 
many differs little from that in England and 
France. As soon as cards were made clieap 
enough to be within the means of the working classes, 
they were prohibited. In time, however, they were 
allowed at the meeting-houses of the trades and — at 
least at Nordlingen — at the annual magistrate's goose- 
feast or corporation dinner, just as they were permitted 
to apprentices in England at Christmas time. Still, 
cards and dice were very common, and gambling called 
for the severe denunciation of the clergy. We read 
that in 1452 Cardinal Johannes Capistran was received 
with great pomp at Nlirnberg, where he held a very 
successful revival. In the market a gorgeous throne 
was arranged for him, and here he held mass and 
preached in Latin, one of his helpers translating the 
sermon into German. '' This he did every day, the 
while he was here, four whole weeks. And touching 
the people with the venerable relic of the saint, he 
prayed God in their behalf; and then blind saw, deaf 
heard, lame went, and many great wonders happened. 
And on St. Laurence Day his sermon lasted three hours ; 
and then they set fire to three thousand six hundred and 
twelve chess-boards, and more than twenty thousand 

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CARD-TABLE TALK. 131 

dice, and packs of cards to a great number, and^seventy- 
two shovel-boards." (Chronik, Niirnberg, i. 191.) 

In 1467 there appeared for the first time, at the 
folk-shooting- festival at Mlinchen, the urn of fortune. 
The prizes were cups of gold and silver, velvet girdles, 
weapons, etc., twenty-two prizes in all against thirty- 
six thousand tickets, costing about a cent each. Such 
was the origin of European lotteries. (Freytag, Bilder, 
ii. 2 (10), 327.) 

Freytag gives a good picture of gaming in the army 
during the Thirty Years War. An open space in the 
camp was set aside for this purpose, and there the 
gamesters gathered about tables under temporary awn- 
ings. Here card-playing had given place to the more 
rapid decision of dice. Dicing had frequently been 
interdicted in camp ; but the players had then secretly 
gathered behind hedges, and there played away their 
rations, arms, horses, and clothes. So it was deemed 
best to authorize the play and put it under supervision. 
But cheating and contentions were frequent. Dice 
were made of the horn of the deer, heavier on one side 
than on the other ; or certain spots were bored out 
and loaded with quicksilver or lead, and colored black 
again. Often the quietness of the game was inter- 
rupted by curses, wrangling, and the flash of the rapier. 
Among the excited players ghded eager-eyed trades- 
men, often Jews, ready to appraise and buy the chains, 
rings, and other articles staked, (iii. (2), 67.) 

During the eighteenth century gaming flourished in 
Germany as elsewhere. Already we see it at the 



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watering-places the bane of the German landed pro- 
prietors. Here they came together and played with 
the Poles, — then the greatest gamesters of Europe. 

^^ There used to be high play at Berlin and Vienna. 
Count Palfy won enough, at a single sitting, of Prince 
John of Lichtenstein to build and furnish a chateau. 
It was shown to the loser, who on being asked how he 
Hked it, rephed : ' Pas du tout ; cela a tout a fait I'air 
d'un chateau de cartes.' There is a current anecdote 
of Count Rechberg, late Secretary for Foreign Affairs 
in Austria, which justifies a surmise that he also is a 
proficient. His left-hand adversary made so desperate 
though successful a finesse that his excellency uttered 
an exclamation of surprise ; whereupon the gentleman 
offered a bet that the Count himself should acknowl- 
edge that he had a sound reason for his play. It was 
taken, and he then coolly said, ^Why, I looked over 
your hand.' This gentleman must have graduated 
under the Artful Dodger, w^ho, when playing dummy 
in Fagin's den, is commended for ' wisely regulating 
his play by the result of his observations on his neigh- 
bor's cards.' Some forty years since [written 1869], a 
remarkable set used to meet in Berlin at Prince Witten- 
stein's, including Count Alopeus, the Russian Minister, 
General Nostitz, Henry Bulwer (then attached to the 
Berlin embassy), and the Duke of Cumberland (after- 
ward King of Hanover)." (Hayward, 457.) 

But Germany is peculiar in the mammoth develop- 
ment during this century of gambling at watering- 
places. The chief of these were Baden-Baden, Spa, 



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CARD-TABLE TALK, 1 35 

and Homburg. Here public gaming-tables were es- 
tablished, and people of all nations came to spend the 
summer and try their fortune at the rouge-et-noir and 
roulette tables. The stories told of the consequent 
anguish, madness, and suicide would fill volumes. 
Among the interesting sketches given by Mrs. Trollope 
of people she observed at the German watering-places 
in 1833, is that of ^^ a pale, anxious old woman, who 
seemed no longer to have strength to conceal her eager 
agitation under the air of callous indifference which all 
practised players endeavor to assume. She trembled 
till her shaking hand could hardly grasp the instrument 
with which she pushed or withdrew her pieces ; the 
dew of agony stood upon her wrinkled brow ; yet hour 
after hour and day after day she sat in the enchanted 
chair. I never saw age and station in a position so 
utterly beyond the pale of respect. I was assured she 
was a person of rank ; and my informant added — but 
I trust she was mistaken — that she was an E?tglisk 
woman." 

The monopoly of the gaming business was usually 
granted by the rulers to individuals, who guaranteed to 
advance a certain per cent of their income as a con- 
sideration for the privilege. In Baden-Baden, in the 
year 1840, such a monopohst agreed to pay an old 
debt of 120,000 florins, spend 230,000 florins in im- 
proving the grounds, and pay the government 40,000 
florins yearly. 

But with 1872 came the purification of Germany of 
this plague-spot, and there is now but one place in 
Europe where public gaming-tables still hold out. 



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137 




GAMING AT MONTE CARLO. 

INE miles east of Nice, and bounded on the 
north by the French department of the Mari- 
time Alps, Monaco, the smallest of the sover- 
eign principalities of Europe, juts out into the blue 
waters of the Mediterranean. Here, in the casino 
of Monte Carlo, are the only public gaming-tables 
legalized in Europe. Established in 1856, they after- 
ward passed into the hands of M. Blanc. He agreed 
not only to pay the government ten per cent of his 
earnings, but also to maintain all the officers and 
servants as well as the garrison of the prince of this 
little state ; and he not only did this, but besides ex- 
pended fabulous sums in magnificent improvements. 
On his death the business passed into the hands of his 
wife, who long conducted it. At present a stock- 
company has control of the lease, which will not 
expire until 191 6. The citizens of Monaco are not 
admitted to the tables, but their interest in the main- 
tenance of the institution is secured by the high price 
brought by their lands and by complete exemption 
from taxation. In this delightful place desperate 
gaming, with all its attendant evils, flourishes, and as 
yet no success has followed the efforts of the " Inter- 
national Association for the Suppression of the Gaming- 
Tables at Monte Carlo.'* 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. 139 




GAMBLING IN AMERICA. 

F the adventurers who first left the Old World 
in the hope of finding in a land of gold and 
pearls an easy road to wealth and luxury, 
many were desperate gamesters. On their journeys 
through forests and marshes, they carried with them 
cards and dice, and at their camp-fires at night gam- 
bled with one another for the little that each possessed. 
Even among the colonists who sought in this country 
to live in peace an honest life, it was found necessary 
to pass laws to crush the vice that would have been 
fatal to the prosperity of the struggHng communities. 

In a new country like ours, which draws from all 
lands the ambitious and venturesome, and offers to 
the alert and active opportunities and gains nowhere 
else to be found, it is but natural that the gambling 
spirit should blossom and thrive. The desire to 
make great achievements in a rapid and easy way 
is the mainspring of much of our material progress, 
and an element akin to gambling is to be detected 
in most of our political, financial, and industrial 
movements and schemes. Indeed it is chiefly in this 
country that stock-gambling has experienced its mam- 
moth development. Speaking of the time of Jack- 
son's administration, Josiah Quincy says : " Gambling 



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CARD-TABLE TALK, 141 

was considered a reputable pastime for gentlemen, 
and a room at most parties was reserved for this pur- 
pose. Card-playing for high stakes was usual among 
prominent politicians and men in office. The enor- 
mous increase of wealth without labor which had come 
to fortunate speculators since the peace of 181 5 seemed 
to make the invocation of chance almost a legitimate 
business. It was said that an original proprietor of a 
single share in the Charlestown Bridge Company had 
received in 1826 not only principal and interest, but a 
surplus of seven thousand dollars. Certain lands in 
Pennsylvania, purchased in 18 14 at sixty- two cents an 
acre, were selling at four hundred dollars an acre. 
Such facts as these, and many similar to them, in which 
the gains were not so enormous, seemed to make specu- 
lation honorable and respectable, and the controlKng 
spirit of the time found one of its outlets in games of 
chance." (Figures of the Past, 275.) 

Gambling in its more hmited sense has always been 
common among us. In spite of laws to the contrary, 
and their occasional severe enforcement, there are 
among us houses of great and of little pretentions to 
respectability whose only or chief purpose is to offer 
opportunity for gambling. 

In the palmy days of the South, gambling flourished, 
and on the Mississippi in particular became so natural- 
ized, as it were, that it was, perhaps, the first thing 
suggested by the mention of that beautiful stream. 

The wild fire of excitement aroused by the discovery 
of gold in California lured to the West and there 



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CARD-TABLE TALK, 143 

inflamed to even greater ardor the gambling spirit 
of the country. A striking picture of the marvellous 
things of those days is furnished by the following 
extracts from Shinn's '^Mining Camps" (pp. 136, 
244) : — 

"March 27, 1850, five prospectors — all New Eng- 
landers, and three at least from the woods of Maine — 
camped beside a gulch and tested the gravel. To their 
delight it was found that they could make eight or ten 
ounces a day to the man, though water was very scarce. 
They named the place Kennebec Hill, and proceeded to 
wash gravel with their utmost energy, knowing that others 
would soon find the gulch. Within a week another pros- 
pector joined them, and succeeded in taking out two and 
a half pounds of gold-dust during his first day's work. 
Within thirteen days from the time the five original pro- 
spectors camped on Kennebec Hill, there were eight thou- 
sand miners in the new town. Many gamblers came 
with the crowd, and at one time there were no less than 
a hundred and forty-three monte and faro banks in 
operation, the funds of which were nearly half a milhon 
dollars. Many were often seen to turn a card for three 
or four thousand dollars, sometimes for several times 
as much. It was one of the most rapid developments 
of a great and prosperous mining-camp ever known in 
Cahfornia. . . . 

" Gambling in Cahfornia was permitted under Mexican 
rule and under the military government of '46-'49. It 
was even a source of revenue to the aytuntainiento of 
San Francisco in August, 1849. It was a legalized and 
important pursuit, followed with zeal by Mexicans, 
Frenchmen, and Americans." 



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LEGISLATION AS TO CARDS AND GAMING. 







EGISLATION in reference to cards and to 
gaming has been quite extensive and varied. 
We have already spoken of the laws of an- 
cient Rome as to gambling and the keeping of gam- 
bling-houses ; from that time on, the pages of historical 
books are sprinkled with various decrees as to the 
matter. In 952 Otto the Great found it necessary to 
threaten to discharge clergymen who persisted in play- 
ing dice. " Eenedictus Abbas has preserved a very 
curious edict, which shows the state of gaming in the 
Christian army commanded by Richard the First King 
of England, and Phihp of France, during the Crusade 
in the year 1 190. No person in the army is permitted 
to play at any sort of game for money, except knights 
and clergymen, who. in one whole day and night shall 
not, each^ lose more than 20 shillings, on pain of losing 
100 shillings to the archbishops of the army. The two 
kings may play for what they please, but their atten- 
dants not for more than 20 shillings. Otherwise they 
are to be whipped naked through the army for three 
days." (HazHtt, Popular Antiquities, ii. 345.) 

In 1397 the working- people of France were forbid- 
den to play at cards on working-days ; and most of 
the early decrees against card-playing aimed mainly to 

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prevent the wasting of time and the formation of idle 
habits on the part of the lower classes. By 1 1 Henry 
VII., 1496, c. 2, and 19 Henry VII. c. 12, it was laid 
down that " no apprentyce nor feruaunt of huf bandry, 
laborer nor feruant artificer, play at the tablys, tenyfe, 
dyfe, cardys, bowlys, nor at none othir vnlawfull game 
owt of the tyrae of Cryftmas but for mete and drynke, 
and in cryftmas to playe onely in the dwellyng howfe of 
his mayfter or in the prefence of hys mayfter." (Same, 
ii. 285.) 

In time it was deemed necessary to make other regu- 
lations, and we read of special injunctions to the clergy. 
In the reign of EHzabeth they are admonished that 
they " shall in no wise haunt or resort to any taverns 
or alehouses ; and after their meats they shall not give 
themselves to drinking or riot, spending their time idly 
by day, and by night idly at dice, cards, or tables play- 
ing." Moreover John, Bishop of Norwich, in 15 61 
directs inquiry to be made whether any parsons, vicars, 
or curates be " dycers, tablers, carders, swearers, or 
vehemently suspected thereof" 

In the Massachusetts court records for March, 1631, 
it is " ordered that all persons whatsoever that have 
cards, dice, or tables in their houses, shall make away 
with them before the nexte Court, under paine of pun- 
ishment." And in the First Code of Laws, made May, 
1650, by the General Court of Connecticut, we find 
the following as to gaming : " Upon complaint of great 
disorder by the use of the game called shufile-board, 
in houses of common entertainment, whereby much 



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149 



precious time is spent unfruitfully, and much waste of 
wine and beer occasioned, It is therefore ordered and 
enacted by the authority of this court that no person 
shall henceforth use the said game of shuffle-board, in 
any such house, nor in any other house used as com- 
mon for such purpose, upon pain for every keeper of 
such house to forfeit for every such offense twenty 
shillings ; and for every person playing at the said 
game in any such house to forfeit for every such offense 
five shillings. The like penalty shall be for playing in 
any place at any unlawful game." 

An 07'donnance of Louis XIII. of France declared all 
debts contracted at play, as well as all promises to pay 
such debts, null and void. And in England in the 
time of Queen Anne (1711) it was enacted tha»t es- 
tates mortgaged at play pass to the heir as if the grantor 
had died. Moreover, any person losing jP^\o at one 
time might recover it, and persons cheating at cards 
were to forfeit five times the amount to the informer, 
and suffer corporal punishment as for perjury. These 
regulations were, however, repealed in 1844 to pro- 
tect eminent sporting characters who had become 
liable to its penalties to a large extent. But the 
following is still law in England : ^* And wx do hereby 
strictly enjoin and prohibit all our loving subjects of 
whatsoever degree or quality soever from playing on 
the Lord's Day at Dice, Cards, or any other game what- 
soever." (Notes and Queries, 1872, X. pp. 311, 377.) 

As has been stated above, the importation into Eng- 
land of foreign cards was prohibited in 1463. In 16 15 



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CARD-TABLE TALK, 151 

the first tax on playing-cards was levied. In the 
" Calendar of State Papers," Domestic Series, A. D. 
1 6 1 i-T 6 1 8, is the follo\ving : — 

" 1615, July 20, Westminster (19). Letters Patent 
granting to Sir Richard Coningsby, for a rent of ^200 
per annum, the imposition of z^s. per gross on playing- 
cards imported in recompense of ^1,800 due to him from 
the King, and of his patent for the sole export of Tin, 
granted by the late Queen." 

" Every enactment relating to playing-cards is ac- 
companied by some reference to fraudulent practices 
with regard to the duties under the former act. The 
trick of selling shghtly soiled playing-cards as ' waste ' 
was largely practised. They were purchased for a few 
pence per pound, chiefly by Jew speculators, who sorted 
them and disposed of them at a cheap rate. In order 
to put a stop to this, the manufacturers were required to 
mark waste cards so that they would be unfit to play with. 
During the reign of George III. no less than seven Acts 
of Parhament were passed relating to cards and dice. 
The tax was made one shilHng a pack, and was paid for 
the ace of spades, — the duty-card, which the maker 
obtained from tlie government. He had, moreover, to 
supply the paper and pay for the engraved plate. This 
duty-card was called ' Old Frizzle,' on account of the 
elaborate flourishes which adorned it." (Cavendish, 
Card Essays, 85-102.) The custom of making the ace 
of spades an ornamental advertising card is a relic of its 
use as duty-card. In 1863 the duty was reduced to 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. 153 

threepence, and is now collected by means of stamped 
wrappers. In Great Britain cards can be manufactured 
only in London, Westminster, and Dublin ; conse- 
quently nowhere in Scotland. 

In reference to the United States internal revenue 
tax on playing-cards and the duty on imported cards, 
it seems best to copy directly from letters from the 
Treasury Department at Washington. 

*^ There is now no internal revenue tax on playing- 
cards, the law imposing tax thereon (Schedule A, imme- 
diately following Section 3,437, Revised Statutes) having 
been repealed by the Act of March 3, 1883, the repeal 
taking effect July i, 1883. 

^' The law thus repealed had imposed the tax in the fol- 
lowing language : ' Playing-cards. — For and upon every 
pack not exceeding fifty-two cards in number, irrespective 
of price or value, five cents.' This language was first 
incorporated in the law by the Act of July 13, 1866, 
amending the Act of June 30, 1864. Prior to this amend- 
ment, the Act of June 30, 1864, imposed tax on such 
cards in these words : ' Playing-cards. — For and upon 
every pack of whatever number, when the retail price per 
pack does not exceed eighteen cents, two cents. Exceed- 
ing the retail price of eighteen cents, and not exceeding 
twenty-five cents per pack, four cents. Exceeding the 
retail price of twenty-five, and not exceeding fifty cents 
per pack, ten cents. Exceeding the retail price of fifty 
cents, and not exceeding one dollar per pack, fifteen 
cents. Exceeding the retail price of one dollar, for every 
additional fifty cents, or fractional part thereof, in excess 
of one dollar, five cents.' 

''Prior to the Act of June 30, 1864, the tax was im- 



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CARD-TABLE TALK, 



155 



posed by the original Excise Tax Act of July i, 1862, in 
the following language : ' Playing-cards. — For and upon 
every pack of whatever number, when the price per pack 
does not exceed eighteen cents, one cent. Over eighteen 
cents and not exceeding twenty-five cents per pack, two 
cents. Over twenty-five and not exceeding thirty cents 
per pack, three cents. Over thirty and not exceeding 
thirty-six cents per pack, four cents. Over thirty-six 
cents per pack, five cents.' 

"Prior to this Act of July i, 1862, there was no inter- 
nal revenue tax on playing-cards. 

"JOS. S. MILLER, 
" Com7nissio?ter of Inte7'nal Revenue.^'' 

'' The duty on playing-cards has been as follows : Act 
July 4, 1789, playing-cards, ten cents per pack; May 2, 
1792, twenty-five cents per pack ; July i, 18 12, fifty cents 
per pack; April 27, 18 16, thirty cents per pack ; August 
30, 1842, twenty-five cents per pack ; July 30, 1846, thirty 
per cent ; March 3, 1857, twenty- four per cent ; March 2, 
1861, thirty per cent ; July 14, 1862, costing not over 
twenty-five cents per pack, fifteen cents per pack ; costing 
over twenty-five cents per pack, twenty-five cents per 
pack ; June 30, 1864, costing not over twenty-five cents 
per pack, twenty-five cents per pack ; over twenty-five 
cents per pack, thirty-five cents per pack. With the 
exception of the period from August i, 1872, to March 3, 
1885, when a reduction of ten per cent was made on the 
total amount of duty received (Act of June 6, 1872) ; this 
rate remained in force until July i, 1883, since when the 
duty on all playing-cards is one hundred per cent (Act, 
March 3, 1883). 

"J. N. WHITNEY, 
* " Acfg Chief of Bureau of Statistics:' 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. 157 




THE MORALITY OF CARD-PLAYING. 

OT only has gambling, or playing for gain 
or from a passion for it, received the con- 
demnation of all writers on morals^ but even 
playing at cards and other games involving the ele- 
ment of chance, for the sake of recreation alone, has 
often been condemned. In the sixteenth century the 
matter was much discussed, and Puritan divines took 
the ground that games involving chance were ''lots," 
and therefore unlawful, inasmuch as lots had been 
"sanctioned by the word of God to a peculiar use." 
In " A Short and Plaine Dialogve concerning the Vn- 
lawfulnes of playing at Cards," etc. (James Balmford), 
London, 1590 [1623]," w^e read : — 

" Whatfoeuer directly, or of it felfe, or in a fpeciall man- 
ner, tendeth to the advancing of the name of God, is to 
be vfed rehgioufly, Mai. 1. 6. 7^ and not to be vfed in 
fport : as wee are not to pray or fweare in fport, Exod. 20. 
7. FJa. 29. IS.Jer. 4. 2 but the vfe of Lots, directly of it 
felfe, and in a fpeciall manner tendeth to the aduancing of 
the name of God, in attributing to his fpeciall prouidence 
in the whole and immediate difpofmg of the Lot, and ex- 
pecting the euent, Pro. 16. 33. Act. 1. 2J^. 26. Therefore 
the vfe of Lots is not to be in fport." 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. 1 59 

Since that time many pamphlets have been printed 
and countless sermons preached against card-playing ; 
while, on the other hand, there have not been want- 
ing good and able men who deemed it worthy of them- 
selves to oppose and refute more or less of the arguments 
thus brought forward. After condemning gaming, Jer- 
emy Taylor once said: ^^ That cards are themselves 
lawful, I do not know any reason to doubt. He can 
never be suspected in any criminal sense to tempt the 
Divine Providence who by contingent things recreates 
his labour. As for the evil appendages, they are all 
separable from these things. . . . He that means to 
make his games law^ful must not play for money, but 
for refreshment. But when our sports come to that 
excess that we long and seek for opportunities ; when 
we tempt others, are weary of our business, and not 
weary of our games ; when we sit up till midnight, and 
spend half days, and quite often too, — then w^e have 
spoiled the sport ; it is no recreation, but a sin." 
^^Such," said Archdeacon Butler, ^^ are the sentiments 
of one of the most truly pious and most profoundly 
learned prelates that ever adorned any age or coun- 
try." The Puritan sentiment on this as on many other 
subjects has been pecuharly strong in this country, and 
it is this sentiment that w^e have to thank for the fact 
that, while most enlightened people do not oppose play- 
ing at cards and similar games in proper places and 
on proper occasions, there is among us a strong public 
sentiment against playing for stakes, betting on the 
game, or a devotion to play that savors of gambling. 



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CARD-TABLE TALK, i6l 



WHIST. 

THE ETYMOLOGIES AND MEANINGS OF CERTAIN 
WORDS CONNECTED WITH WHIST. 



Authorities. — y(?;?<?j" (Cavendish). Card Essays. London 

and New York. 1879. pp. 72-84. 
Skeat. An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 

Oxford. 1882. Supplement. 1884. 
Stormonth. A Dictionary of the English Language. New 

York. 1885. (Reprint.) 
Webster. An American Dictionary of the English Lanc^uage. 

Springfield. 1883. 



CE. [Mid. Eng. and Old French as^ an ace ; 
Lat. as, a unit ; Doric Greek as, said to be 
the Tarentine pronunciation of Greek el?, 
one ; and thus cognate with Eng. o?ie7\ The one of 
cards or dice. 

Card. [A doublet of chart and of carte, French 
carte; Lat. c{/i)arta ; Greek x^P'^vi^)- ^^^ Chatto, 
who believes in the oriental origin of playing-cards, 
derives card from chatur, the word for /oi^r in the 
Hindustani language, calling attention to the fact that 
the idea of four is very generally connected with cards. 
He would also associate x^P'^V ^^^ c{h)arta with the 
word ioxfoiir, denoting a square piece of paper.] 
Clubs. See page 53. 

CoAT-CARD, by popular etymology corrupted into 

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CARD-TABLE TALK, 1 63 

Court-card. A card bearing a coated figure ; namely^ 
king, quee?t, or knave. 

Coup, pronounced coo, [French coup ; Lat. col- 
pus, a stroke.] At cards, a brilliant play. 

Deuce. [French deux, Lat. duo, two ; cognate with 
Eng. two. Of course not connected with deuce, an 
evil spirit ; Lat. deus, god.] A two at cards or dice. 

Discard. [Lat. dis, away, and Eng. card,'\ To throw 
away useless cards. 

Finesse, pronounced y/-/^<fj'j''. [French finesse, sub- 
tilty ; \jdX. fin?iitus , finished.] At cards, the play of a 
lower card at the risk of its being covered by one's oppo- 
nent, while 07ie keeps back a higher card that would 
have insicred him the trick. 

Honor. [Old French and Lat. honor,'] At cards, 
one of the four highest cards, ace, king, queen, or hiave, 
especially of trumps, and bringi^tg, i?i whist as played 
in Engla7id, extra credit to the player if held in C07i7iec- 
tion with two or three more. 

Jack. [Mid. Eng. Jacke ; French Jacques ; Lat. 
Jacobus; Heb. Ya^aqbb ; whence our Jacob, Jake, 
Ja77ies, Jim, But Jack was regarded as an equivalent 
of John, and, like that, was used as a name of con- 
tempt, and so applied to a boy or attendant, as also 
to anything taking his place, as boot-jack, etc. Com- 
pare knave, ~\ At cards, the same as the knave. 

Knave. [Old Eng. cnafa or C7tapa ; GermsLXi J^nabe, 
Probably from Indo-European root gen, and denoting 
that which is born. Its first meaning in English is boy, 
then servant, lastly sly fellow or villain. Compare 



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CARD-TABLE TALK, 1 65 

Jack^ At cards, the picture-card in value second 
below the king, aJid corresp07zding to the valet in the 
French pack. 

Revoke. [French revoquer ; Lat. revocare, to call 
back.] In English, (i) to call back, (2) to hold 
back ; and so at cards, to hold back a card that should 
be played, and play another i?i its place. 

Rubber. [From rub.'] At cards, (i) that game, 
of a set of games, which decides the contest ; (2) a set 
of games at whist, two or three ^ accordvtg to which side 
wins the second. 

Ruff. It at first had the meaning of {1) poi7it at 
piquet, and translated the French rorifle. Next we find 
it as the name of (2) a7i English game resembling 
whist. In this game "to ruff" denoted (3) to dis- 
card; but its more common meaning is (4) to trump, 
and this has been retained in " cross-ruff." Skeat 
says, " evidently a modification of French ronfle ; " but 
this leaves unexplained the break between (i) and 
(2, 3, 4). Stormonth refers to Port, rufa, 3. game with 
dice ; Webster to Port, rifa, rifa ; Sp. rifan. 

Sequence. [French sequence ; Lat. sequentia, from 
seqiii, to follow.] Three or more cards following i7i 
regular order, 

Slam(m). [Iceland, slamra, Norweg. slemba, to 
bang; slam, in Northern England, "to beat or cuff 
one strenuously, to push violently." As Eng. beat and 
Ger. schlage?! pass from "strike " to "conquer," slam 
came to mean " to beat, or win," at cards. Webster 
says, "as it were to take all at a stroke or dash ; " 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. 167 

which is possible (see trick), but not necessary.] At 
cards, (verb) to win all the tricks in 07ie hand at 7vhist, 
{^' to send to Chicago'')', (noun) (i) the win7iing of 
all the tricks iii one hand at whist ; (2) an old game 
similar to whist. 

Spade. [Spanish espada^ a sword ; Lat. spatha ; 
Greek o-TrdO^r], sl blade ; and ultimately the same word 
as Eng. spade.] See page 53. 

Suit, pronounced si2t or soot, [French suite ; Lat. 
secta., a following.] z\t cards, a set of cards having the 
same characteristic mark, also the mark itself 

Swabber. [Derivation unknown.] See p. 171. 

Texace. [French tenace ; Lat. tenax, from tenlre, 
to hold.] Major tenace, the first a7id third best cards ; 
minor tenace, the second and fow'th best cards. 

Trey. [Old French trei ; Lat. tr'es, three ; and cog- 
nate with Eng. three?^ A three at cards or dice. 

Trick. [Old Eng. trica and strica, a stroke or mark.] 
At cards, a set of four cards won at once and making 
one count. 

Trump [a corruption of triumph']. The suit of cards 
{or one of them) which has a superior or commanding 
value. Also a game similar to whist, see p. 169. 

Whist, originally Whisk. First printed whisk in 
"Taylor's Motto" (1621). The form luhist found 
first in the second part of ^^ Hudibras " (spurious), 1663. 
Skeat considers both forms exclamations commanding 
silence. Others would look for some other derivation 
of whisk, and regard 7vhist and the silence idea as 
due to popular etymology. 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. 1 69 

HISTORY OF WHIST. 
(Mostly from Cavendish's " Laws and Principles," 31-54.) 

As early as the beginning of the sixteenth century 
a card-game called triicmph^ or trump, was commonly 
played in England. This game in its chief feature 
— the predominance of one particular suit — and in 
its general construction was so similar to whist that no 
one can doubt that it was the game from which whist 
grew. What was the origin of trump, or ruff-and-honors 
(as it was also called), cannot now be ascertained. The 
game was taken by Latimer to illustrate his text in the 
first of two sermons, '' Of the Card," preached by him 
at Cambridge, about 1529. 

" And where you are wont to celebrate Christmas in 
playing at Cards. I intend, with God's grace, to deal unto 
you Christ's Cards, wherein you shall perceive Christ's 
Rule. The game that we play at shall be the Triumph, 
which, if it be well played at, he that dealeth shall win ; 
the Players shall hkewise win, and the standers and look- 
ers-upon shall do the same. . . . You must mark also, 
that the Triumph must apply to fetch home unto him all 
the other Cards, whatsoever suit they be of. . . . Then 
further we must say to ourselves, * What requireth Christ 
of a Christian man ? ' Now turn up your Trump, your 
Heart (Hearts is Trump, as I said before), and cast your 
Trump, your Heart, on this card." ^ 

1 From the earliest times, the plural forms, trtimps^ spades, 
etc., have been used with a verb in the singular. 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. 171 

The game of trump is also alluded to by Shakspeare 
in '^Antony and Cleopatra/' act iv. sc. 12 (first published 
1623, probably wTitten 1607, Dowden) : — 

'* Antony. My good knave, Eros, now thy captain is 
Even such a body : here I am Antony ; 
Yet cannot hold this visible shape, my k7iave. 
I made these wars for Eg}^pt ; and the Qiieen^ — 
Whose heart I thought I had, for she had mine ; 
Which, whilst it was mine, had annex'd unto 't 
A million more, now lost, — she, Eros, has 
Packed cards with Caesar, 2^.nd. false-played my glory 
Unto an enemy's trhtmph. " 

In the '^Compleat Gamester" (ist ed., 1674) we 
read : " Ruff and Honours {alias Slamm) and Whist 
are Games so commonly known in England in all parts 
thereof, that every Child almost of Eight Years old, 
hath a competent knowledge of that recreation." We 
are also informed that the deuces were not used. The 
trump was the bottom card, and the game was nine 
up. Whist, then, was originally played with forty-eight 
cards, and the odd-trick — that important feature in the 
modern game — was of course wanting. By 1721 the 
game was ten up, and about the same time fifty-two 
cards were used. Occasionally the game was played 
with swabbers, or swobbers (the ace of hearts, knave of 
clubs, ace and deuce of trumps), which entitled the 
holder to a stake independent of the general event of 
the game. But these were soon dropped. 

The Hon. Daines Barrington (Archaeologia, viii.) 
says that whist in its infancy was chiefly confined to 
the servants' hall. In Farquhar's comedy of ^^The 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. I 73 

Beaux's Stratagem" (1707), Mrs. Sullen, a fine lady 
fi-om London, speaks in a contemptuous vein of the 
'' rural Accomplishments of drinking fat Ale, playing at 
Whisk, and smoking Tobacco." Pope also classes 
whist as a country squire's game in his " Epistle to 
Mrs. Teresa Blount" (1715) '- — 

*' Some squire, perhaps, you take delight to rack, 
Whose game is Whisk, whose treat a toast in sack." 

At this period there was a mania for card-playing in 
all parts of Europe and in all classes of society ; but 
whist had not as yet found favor in the highest circles. 
Piquet, ombre, and quadrille were the principal games 
of the fashionable world. But about 1728 the game 
of whist rose out of its comparative obscurity. 

A party of gentlemen, of whom the first Lord Folke- 
stone was one, used at this date to frequent the Crown 
coffee-house in Bedford Row, where they studied whist 
scientifically. They must have made considerable 
progress in the game, to judge by the following rules 
which they laid down : '^ Lead from the strong suit ; 
study your partner's hand ; and attend to the score." 

Shortly after this the celebrated Edmond Hoyle 
published his *^ Short Treatise " (1743). He also gave 
private lessons in whist, and advertised that he had 
" fram'd an Artificial Memory, which takes not off your 
Attention from your Game ; and if required, he is ready 
to communicate it, upon Payment of one Guinea." 

In the middle of the eighteenth century, whist was 
regularly played in fashionable society. In ^'Tom 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. 1 75 

Jones," Lady Bellaston, Lord Fellamar, and others are 
represented as indulging in a rubber. 

In an epic poem on ^^ Whist," by Alexander Thomas 
(1791), Hoyle was thus invoked : — 

'' Whist, then, delightful Whist, my theme shall be. 
And first I '11 try to trace its pedigree, 
And shew what sage and comprehensive mind 
Gave to the world a pleasure so refin'd ; 
Then shall the verse its various charms display. 
Which bear from ev'ry game the palm av/ay ; 
And, last oi all, those rules and maxims tell 
Which give the envied pow'r to play it well. 

But first (for such the mode) some tuneful shade 
Must be invok'd, the vent'rous Muse to aid. 

What pow'r so well can aid her daring toil 
As the bright spirit of immortal Hoyle ? 
By whose enlighten'd efforts Whist became 
A sober, serious, scientific game ; 

Come, then, my friend, my teacher, and my guide, 
Where'er thy shadowy ghost may now reside ; 
Perhaps (for Nature ev'ry change defies. 
Nor ev'n with death our ruling passion dies) 
With fond regret it hovers still, unseen, 
Around the tempting boards array'd in green ; 
Still with delight its fav'rite game regards, 
And, tho' it plays no more, o'erlooks the cards. 

Come, then, thou glory of Britannia's isle, 
On this attempt, propitious, deign to smile ; 
Let all thy skill th' unerring page inspire, 
And all thy zeal my raptur'd bosom fire." 

In 1760 the laws of the game were revised by the 
members of White's and Saunders's chocolate-houses. 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. I 77 

In 1864 the Arlington and Portland clubs revised the 
code of the chocolate-houses ; and their revised laws 
are now the standard by which disputed points are 
determined in England, and to some extent in America. 

Early in this century the points of the game were, 
in England, altered from ten to five, and callmg honors 
was abolished. It is doubtful whether this change was 
for the better. In the opinion of Cavendish, long 
whist, ten up, is a far finer game than short whist, fivQ 
up ; short whist, however, has in England taken a 
lasting hold. According to Clay, the alteration took 
place under the following circumstances : — 

^^Some sixty or seventy years back. Lord Peter- 
borough having one night lost a large sum of money, 
the friends with whom he was playing proposed to 
make the game five points instead of ten, in order to 
give the lo^er a chance, at a quicker game, of recover- 
ing his loss. The new game was found to be lively, 
and m.oney changed hands with such increased rapidity 
that these gentlemen and their friends, all of them 
members of the leading clubs of the day, continued to 
play it. It became general in the clubs, thence was 
introduced into private houses, travelled into the coun- 
try, w^ent to Paris, and has long since entirely super- 
seded the whist of Hoyle's day." 

In America, however, short whist has by no means 
been generally adopted. Regular long whist, ten up, 
is, indeed, but Httle played ; but long whist, seven up, — 
that is, without honors, — is so generally played in this 
country that it is quite properly called American whist. 

12 



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179 



"Between 1850 and i860, a knot of young men at 
Cambridge, [England,] of considerable ability, who had 
at first taken up whist for amusement, found it offer 
such a field for intellectual study that they continued 
its practice more systematically, with a view to its more 
complete investigation and to the solution of difficult 
problems connected with it. The little whist school 
held together afterward in London, and added to its 
numbers ; and in 1862 one of its members brought 
out the original edition of the work now so well known 
under the name of Cavendish." (Pole, Philosophy of 
Whist, p. 9.) 

BOOKS ON WHIST. 

The names of the chief writers and their works will 
be found in the Bibliography. The best book for a 
beginner w^ho desires to learn the game well is, without 
doubt, Pole's " Philosophy of Whist ; " he will next get 
Cavendish's '' Laws and Principles ; " and after that he 
will be his own best guide. For those who wish to ac- 
quire but the elements of play, some such little book as 
'' Easy Whist," by Aquarius, or Buckland's '' Whist for 
Beginners," will be helpful; they will also do well to 
devote themselves to pages 192, 193, of this volume. 

Discussions as to recent developments of Whist, 
especially in the direction of extensions of the signalling 
system, will be found in '' The American Lead Con- 
troversy," by Merry Andrew, in " Whist Developments," 
by Cavendish, and, humorously put, in '' The Decline 
and Fall of Whist," by Pembridge. 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. i8l 

EDGAR ALLAN POE ON WHIST. 

" Whist has long been noted for its influence upon 
what is termed the calculating power ; and men of the 
highest order of intellect have been known to take an 
apparently unaccountable delight in it, while eschewing 
chess as frivolous. Beyond doubt there is nothing of 
a similar nature so greatly tasking the faculty of anal- 
ysis. The best chess-player in Christendom may be 
little more than the best player of chess ; but pro- 
ficiency in whist impHes capacity for success in all those 
more important undertakings where mind struggles with 
mind. When I say proficiency, I mean that perfection 
in the game which includes a comprehension of all the 
sources whence legitimate advantage may be derived. 
These are not only manifold, but multiform, and lie 
firequently among recesses of thought altogether in- 
accessible to the ordinary understanding. To observe 
attentively is to remember distinctly ; and, so far, the 
concentrative chess-player will do very well at whist, 
while the rules of Hoyle (themselves based upon the 
mere mechanism of the game) are sufficiently and gen- 
erally comprehensive. . . . But it is in matters beyond 
the limits of mere rule that the skill of the analyst is 
evinced. He makes in silence a host of observations 
and inferences. . . . He examines the countenance of 
his partner, comparing it carefully with that of each of 
his opponents. He considers the mode of assorting 
the cards in each hand, often counting trump by 
trump and honor by honor through the glances 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. 185 

bestowed by their holders upon each. He notes every 
variation of face as the play progresses, gathering a 
fund of thought from the differences in the expression 
of certainty, of surprise, of triumph, of chagrin. From 
the manner of gathering up a trick he judges whether 
the person taking it can make another in the suit. He 
recognizes what is played through feint, by the air with 
which it is thrown upon the table. A casual or inad- 
vertent word; the accidental dropping or turning of a 
card, with the accompanying anxiety or carelessness in 
regard to its concealment ; the counting of the tricks, 
with the order of their arrangement ; embarrassment, 
hesitation, eagerness, or trepidation, — all afford, to his 
apparently intuitive perception, indications of the true 
state of affairs. The first two or three rounds having 
been played, he is in full possession of the contents of 
each hand, and thenceforward puts down his cards with 
as absolute a precision of purpose as if the rest of the 
party had turned outward the faces of their own." (The 
Murders in the Rue Morgue.) 

WHIST A LANGUAGE. 

'' It is common to meet persons, thinking themselves 
tolerable whist-players, who have no idea of learning 
anything from their partner's play as to what cards he 
holds. ... It was only when the great principle of the 
combination of the hands became fully appreciated that 
the importance of the communication between the 
partners began to be really understood. It was soon 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. 



185 



seen that, in order that the combination might be 
thoroughly carried out, each of the players must, in the 
first place, give his partner all possible information ; 
and, in the second place, must carefully observe and 
interpret every intimation which his partner might be 
able to afford him. . . . Clay says : ' Whist is a language, 
and every card played an intelligible sentence.' The 
necessity of regularity and care in the play is curiously 
illustrated by the character of truthfulness generally 
ascribed to it. The player who violates this regularity 
by playing a card different from that which, as a matter 
of routine, his partner would expect him to play, is said 
to play ^ false,' and the card so played is called a 
'false card.' " (Pole, Philosophy of Whist, 49-59.) 

" I hold in abhorrence the playing false cards. 
French players are dangerously addicted to false cards, 
and the Americans rarely play the right card if they 
have one to play which is likely to deceive everybody. 
They play for their own hands alone, — the worst fault 
I know in a whist-player." (Clay.) 

TEACHING AND LEARNING. 

" A competent amateur, when taking his place oppo- 
site a lady partner, is almost invariably addressed : 
' Now, pray don't scold ; I can't bear scolding.' In 
other words : ' I can't bear to be taught.' A critical 
remark to a male partner, or an attempt to talk over 
the hand, is frequently met in a manner that does not 
invite a repetition of the experiment, although a polite 



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inquiry why a particular card was played is an implied 
compliment." (Hay ward, 410.) 

" No doubt some men do bore one very much by the 
way they criticise without rhyme or reason at the end 
of every hand. One of these bores is the ^ if you had ' 
partner, who constantly greets you wdth ^ If you had 
only done so-and-so, we should have made so-and-so.' 
My favorite retort to the ' if you had ' partner is to ask 
if he has ever heard the story of ^ your uncle and your 
aunt.' If he has, he does not want to hear it again, 
and is silent. If he has not, and innocently falls into 
the trap by expressing a desire to hear it, I say in a 
solemn voice : ' If your aunt had been a man, she 
would have been your uncle ! ' " (Cavendish, Card 
Essays, 176.) 

ADVICE TO WHIST STUDENTS. 

(Condensed from Pole's Philosophy of Whist, 80-88.) 

First you must be convinced that you have some- 
thing to learn. People fancy they can become good 
players by mere practice, which is a great mistake ; 
they only move on in one eternal blundering round. 
The philosophical game has been the result of years" 
upon years of elaborate thought and incessant experi- 
ment, and you can no more arrive at it by your own 
limited experience than you could become acquainted 
with modern scientific astronomy by watching for a 
few weeks the apparent motion of the stars. 

It is highly desirable to confine your attention, in 



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CARD-TABLE TALK, 189 

the first instance, to the simplest and broadest precepts, 
and not to distract the mind at the outset by too much 
detail. To aid in this, it may be useful here to put 
down a few simple elementary rules (pp. 192, 193) which 
are of the most importance to beginners. They do 
not pretend to be anything like a complete code ; but 
if fully mastered for ready application in practice, they 
will at once enable you to make a fair beginning as 
a whist-player on the proper system. 

Most people who do not play whist and do not care 
to take the trouble to learn, excuse themselves by say- 
ing they " have no memory for it." They imagine that 
the great art in playing consists in remembering every 
card that falls. The necessity of remembering all the 
cards that fall is a fiction \ no one attempts to do it, 
or needs to do it. It is one of the best features 
of philosophical play that it immensely simplifies the 
exercise and application of the mnemonic faculty, by 
showing to what points it is most important to direct 
'attention, 

1. The trumps occupy the most prominent place, and 
your first effort of memory must therefore be directed 
to these. Begin by counti?tg them, quite positively and 
distinctly, as they fall ; and you will soon take a special 
pleasure in finding your mental "^ thirteen " correspond 
with the fall of the last trump upon the table. 

2. The next thing to attend to is to notice and re- 
collect the fall of the high trumps. Try always to 
remember the play of the four highest trumps ; and 
if you then extend your memory to the ten and the 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. 19I 

nine, you will go as far as the general run of moderate 
players pretend to. 

3. After the trump-suit, the most important thing to 
you is your own lofig suit. Let this therefore have 
your next attention. It is better at first not to attempt 
actually to coimt the cards falling of any suit except 
trumps ; but you will find that the counting may be 
done almost instinctively, by certain indications that 
you will soon be familiar with. For example, sup- 
pose you have four cards of your suit : if it goes round 
three times, you will at once know you hold the thir- 
teenth j if one player fails the third time, then some 
one besides yourself has one left for the fourth round \ 
and so on. 

4. Then you must try to remember the fall of the 
highest cards in your suit, in order to know whether 
you possess the full command, or whether there may 
be a master-card still in your way. 

5. After this, the next thing in importance is your 
partner s long suit, which you note by his first lead, 
and have to return to him. 

You should bear in mind that a habit of observation 
is much more important than memory; for when 
people complain that they do not recollect the fall 
of certain cards, they imply that they did not atten- 
tively observe them when they fell. If a player really 
observes that the queen of hearts is played to a trick, 
he is hardly likely to forget it a minute later. Fay 
attention to the cards as they fall, and you will have 
no reason to blame your memory. 



192 WHIST SCORES AND 

SIMPLE ELEMENTARY RULES. 

GENERAL PRINCIPLES. 

* 

Remember that the great fundamental principle is the Combi- 
natio7t of the Hands of the partners. For which reason it is of 
the highest importance that you should watch, and draw infer- 
ences from, the fall of your partner's cards, with the view of 
gaining information as to his hand, and that you should play 
your own cards very carefully, in order to give him information 
as to yours. 

THE OPENING. 

Let your first plain-suit lead be from your longest stiit, which 
gives your partner the most ample and positive information. 
In this suit, — 

If you hold Lead 

Ace and king, King, then ace. 

King and queen, King. 

Ace, queen, knave, Ace, then queen. 

Queen, knave, ten, Queen. 

Knave, ten, nine, Knave. 

King, knave, ten, Ten. 

Ace and four or more small ones, . Ace. 

In other cases, lead the lowest ; or, if you hold five or more 
cards, the lowest but one. 

RETURN OF YOUR PARTNER'S SUIT. 

If you have not more than two left, return the highest ; if 
more, the lowest. But in any case get rid of the commanding 
card. 



CARD-TABLE TALK. 



MANAGEMENT OF TRUMPS. 



^93 



If you hold five trtunps, lead them ; and if they contain one of 
the four highest, call for them. 

If yoicr partner leads trumps^ it is imperative that you return 
them the first opportunity. 

If he calls for them, you must lead them for him as early as 
you can ; if you hold three or less, play out your best ; if more 
than three, your lowest. 

Do not force your partner if he has shown strength in trumps, 
or if (being in ignorance of this), you are weak in them. 

But force a strong adverse trump hand whenever you can. 

Do not trump a doubtful trick second hand, if you have four 
or more trumps ; if you have less, do so. 

SECOND HAND. 

Generally play your loivest card. But if you hold ace and 
king, or king and queen, play the lowest ofthe?n. 

THIRD HAND. 

Generally play your highest. Bitt with ace and queen you 
should finesse the queen, playing out the ace afterward. 

SECOND, THIRD, OR FOURTH HAND. 

Always play the lowest of a sequence. 

« 

DISCARDING. 

As a general rule, discard your shortest suit. But if strength 
in trumps is declared against you, reverse the rule and discard 
from your most numerous one. 

IN ALL POSITIONS 

Avoid playing "false " cards, and be very careful in playing 
even the smallest cards, lest you may deceive your partner. 

^3 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. 195 

THE DUFFER'S WHIST-MAXIMS. 

(From Cavendish's Card Essays, 1 10-114.) 

*' Printed for the benefit of families, and to prevent scolding." 

— Bob Short. 

'' I. Do not confuse your mind by reading a parcel of 
books. Surely you Ve a right to play your own game 
if you like. Who are the people that wrote these 
books ? What business have they to set up their views 
as superior to yours ? Many of these writers lay down 
this rule : ' Lead originally from your strongest suit ; ' 
don't you do it unless it suits your hand. It may be 
good in some hands, but it does n't follow that it should 
be in all. Lead a single card sometimes, or at any 
rate from your weakest suit, so as to make your Httle 
trumps when the suit is returned. By following this 
course in leads, you will nine times out often ruin both 
your own and your partner's hands ; but the tenth 
time you will perhaps make several little trumps, which 
would have been useless otherwise. In addition to 
this, if sometimes you lead from your strongest suit, 
and sometimes from your weakest, it puzzles the ad- 
versaries, and they never can tell what you have led 
from. 

'^2. Seldom return your partner's lead ; you have as 
many cards in your hand as he has, it is a free country, 
and why should you submit to his dictation ? Play the 
suit you deem best, without regard to any preconceived 
theories. It is an excellent plan to lead out first one 



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197 



suit, and then another. This mode of playing is ex- 
tremely perplexing to the whole table. If you have a 
fancy for books, you will find this system approved by 
^ J. C He says : ^ You mystify alike your adversaries 
and your partner. You turn the game upside down, 
reduce it to one of chance, and in the scramble may 
have as good a chance as your neighbors.' 

'' 3. Especially do not return your partner's lead in 
trumps, for not doing so, now and then turns out to be 
advantageous. Who knows but you may make a trump 
by holding up ? — which you certainly cannot do if your 
trumps are all out. Never mind the fact that you will 
usually lose tricks by refusing to play your partner's 
game. Whenever you succeed in making a trump by 
your refusal, be sure to point out to your partner how 
fortunate it was that you played as you did. Perhaps 
your partner is a much better player than you, and he 
may on some former occasion, with an exceptional 
hand, have declined to return your lead of trumps. 
Make a note of this. Remind him of it if he com- 
plains of your neglecting to return his lead. It is an 
unanswerable argument. 

" 4. There are a lot of rules — to wliich, however, 
you need pay no attention — about leading from se- 
quences. What can it matter which card of a sequence 
you lead? The sequence-cards are all of the same 
value, and one of them is as likely to win the trick as 
another. Besides, if you look at the books, you '11 find 
the writers don't even know their own minds. They 
advise in some cases that you should lead the highest. 



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199 



in others the lowest, of the sequence ; and in leading 
from ace, king, queen, they actually recommend you 
to begin with the middle card. Any person of common 
sense must infer from this that it does n't matter which 
card of a sequence you lead. 

'^ 5. There are also a number of rules about the play 
of the second, third, and fourth hands ; but they are 
quite unw^orthy serious consideration. The exceptions 
are almost as numerous as the rules ; so if you play by 
no rule at all, you are about as likely to be right as to 
be wrong. 

'' 6. Before leading trumps always first get rid of all 
the winning cards in your plain suit ; you will not then 
be bothered with the lead after trumps are out, and 
you thus shift all the responsibility of mistakes on your 
partner. But if your partner has led a suit, be care- 
ful when you lead trumps to keep in your hand the 
best card of his lead. By this means, if he goes on 
with his suit, you are more likely to get the lead after 
trumps are out, — which, the books say, is a great 
advantage. 

'' 7. Take every opportunity of playing false cards, 
both high and low. For by deceiving all round you 
will now and then win an extra trick. It is often said, 
^Oh ! but you deceive your partner.' That is very true. 
But then, as you have two adversaries and only one 
partner, it is obvious that by running dark you play 
two to one in your own favor. Besides this, it is very 
gratifying, when your trick succeeds, to have taken in 
your opponents and to have won the applause of an 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. 201 

ignorant gallery. If you play in a commonplace way, 
even your partner scarcely thanks you. An/body could 
have done the same. 

'^8. Keep as many pictures and winning cards as you 
can in your hand. They are pretty to look at ; and if 
you remain with the best of each suit you effectually 
prevent the adversaries from bringing in a lot of small 
cards at the end of the hand. As to the fall of the 
cards, it is quite clear that it is of no use to watch 
them ; for if everybody at the table is trying to deceive 
you, in accordance with maxim seven, the less you no- 
tice the cards they play, the less you will be taken in. 

" 9. Whenever you have ruined your hand and your 
partner's by playing in the way here recommended, 
you should always say that it ' made no difference.' 
It sometimes happens that it has made no difference, 
and then your excuse is clearly valid. And it will often 
happen that your partner does not care to argue the 
point with you ; in which case your remark will make it 
clear to everybody that you have a profound insight 
into the game. If, however, your partner chooses to 
be disagreeable, and succeeds in proving you to be 
utterly ignorant of the first elements of whist, stick to it 
that you played right, that good play will sometimes 
turn out unfortunately, and accuse your partner of 
judging by results. This will generally silence him. 

" 10. Invariably blow up your partner at the end of 
every hand. It is not only a most gentleman-like em- 
ployment of spare time, but it gains you the reputation 
of being a first-rate player." 



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GREAT WHIST-PLAYERS. 



203 



*' A master of whist (Lord Henry Bentinck), who had 
survived a generation, was asked who were the best 
whist-players he ever knew. He instantly named three, 
— the late Earl Granville, the Hon. George Anson, and 
Henry Lord de Ros. On being asked for the fourth 
he paused ; but there was no need of hesitation : ' Ed 
io anche sono pittore.' No one would have accused 
him of undue assumption if he had followed the example 
of Lamartine, who on being asked who was the first 
living French poet, drew himself up with an air of 
offended dignity and replied, ^MoL' The palm was 
considered to lie between Lord Bentinck and Mr. Clay, 
whose styles were so essentially different that an in- 
structive parallel might be drawn between them, after 
the manner of Plutarch. We regret to say that great 
whist-players resemble rival beauties in one respect, — 
rarely will one admit the distinguished merit, not to say 
superiority, of another." (Hayward, 454.) 

TALKING AT WHIST. 

"G. W. p." quotes from ^* a humorous professor" 
who says : " One can no more play whist and talk than 
he can translate Ovid and turn somersaults at the same 
time." 

WHIST AND THE TEMPER. 

^*The strangest thing in the world is the different 
way in which whist affects the temper. It is no test 



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CARD-TABLE TALK, 205 

of temper, as some pretend, — not at all ! The best- 
tempered people in the world grow snappish at whist, 
and I have seen the most testy and peevish in ordinary 
affairs of life bear their losses witji the stoicism of 
Epictetus." (Bulwer-Lytton, My Novel.y 

WHIST ETIQUETTE. 

" American whist assumes at the outset and always 
that whosoever takes part in its play is incapable of un- 
gentlemanly deportment. ... It deprecates the shout- 
ing at the table upon every occasion of misplay or 
accident. . . . We have no more necessity for a ^^Tit- 
ten whist etiquette than we have for a written pulpit 
etiquette. . . . The inference to be drawn from some 
of the rules of English clubs is that somebody is at- 
tempting to obtain undue advantage, and his opponent 
must be on the perpetual look-out for him. ... ^ No 
intimation whatever, by word or gesture, should be 
given by a player as to the state of his hand or of 
the game.' . . . ^ The cards must not be shuffled 
under the table.' What fair-minded man of sense 
ever thought of such a thing as doing it? The rule 
would be as kindly received by us if it read, ^The 
cards must not be shuffled in the coal-scuttle or in the 
back-yard wood-bin.' . . . ^ Should the players on 
both sides subject themselves to the penalty of one or 
more revokes, neither can win the game ; each is 
punished at the discretion of his adversary.' We 
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CARD-TABLE TALK. 207 

rule. A revoke made among good and proper players 
seldom happens, and whenever such an accident oc- 
curs with us, the shame of the offender is hard punish- 
ment. ... It is proper to guard against and take 
penalties for accidental errors ; but in the matter of 
consistent courtesy, what gentleman requires or would 
brook such reminder? Laws and rules are for instruc- 
tion as to what is best for the game's action ; the 
possession of the sense of moral rectitude should be 
conceded." (Pettes, American Whist) 

WHIST TYRANTS. 

^^Real co7'vees are inflicted by heads of famiUes on 
dependent relations, or by patrons on humble friends 
who are under some obligation to them, and so bound 
to them as to be defenceless. The father or patron 
wants, let us say, his nightly game at whist. He must 
and will have it ; if he cannot get it, he feels that the 
machine of the universe is out of gear. He singles 
out three people who do not want to play, — perhaps 
takes for his partner one who thoroughly dislikes the 
game, but who has learned something of it in obedience 
to his orders. They sit down to their board of green 
cloth. The time passes wearily for the principal victim, 
who is thinking of something else, and makes mistakes. 
The patron loses his temper, speaks with increased 
acerbity, and finally either flies into a passion and 
storms (the old-fashioned way), or else adopts, with 
grim self-control, a tone of insulting contempt toward 



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209 



his victim that is even more difficult to endure. And 
this is the reward for having been unselfish and oblig- 
ing — these are the thanks for having sacrificed a happy 
evening ! " (Hamerton. Human Intercourse, 378.) 



PLAYING WHIST. 

" In the library or drawing-room a table is made, and 
A says, as he looks over his thirteen cards, ' I declare 
I don't know what to play ! ' and B responds, ' You 
would if you had my hand ; it 's awful ! ' and C. says, 
'Well, play something; I can follow suit to afiy thing T 
and D groans, ' Yes, give us something ; I want to get 
through with this hand ! ' Not one of the party happens 
to hold three aces, three kings, three queens, and four 
trumps, — and is not satisfied. They do not think that 
among them are distributed all the cards there are, and 
that it is by the best use of such as each may chance 
to hold, the great game is played." (Pettes, 127.) 

" ' I really do not know what to lead.' The lady or 
gentleman who habitually indulges in this apostrophe 
had better say at once, ' I really do not know how to 
play.'" (Hay ward, 453.) 

MRS. BATTLE'S OPINIONS ON WHIST. 

'' ' A clear fire, a clean hearth, and the rigor of the 
game.' This was the celebrated wish of old Sarah 
Battle (now with God), who, next to her devotions, 
loved a good game of whist. She was none of your 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. 2 II 

lukewarm gamesters, your half-and-half players who 
have no objection to take a hand if you want one to 
make up a rubber, who affirm that they have no pleas- 
ure in winning, that they like to win one game and 
lose another, that they can while away an hour very 
agreeably at a card-table, but are indifferent whether 
they play or no, and will desire an adversary who has 
slipped a wrong card to take it up and play another. 
These insufferable trifiers are the curse of a table. One 
of these flies will spoil a whole pot. Of such it may 
be said that they do not play at cards, but only play at 
playing at them. 

" Sarah Battle was none of that breed. She detested 
them, as I do, from her heart and soul, and would not, 
save upon a striking emergency^ willingly seat herself 
at the same table with them. She loved a thorough- 
paced partner, a determined enemy. She took, and 
gave, no concessions. She hated favors. She never 
made a revoke, nor ever passed it over in her adver- 
sary without exacting the utmost forfeiture. She fought 
a good fight : cut and thrust. She held not her good 
sword (her cards) Hike a dancer.' She sat bolt up- 
right, and neither showed you her cards, nor desired 
to see yours. All people have their blind side, their 
superstitions ; and I have heard her declare, under the 
rose, that hearts was her favorite suit. 

'' I never in my life — and I knew Sarah Battle many 
of the best years of it — saw her take out her snuff-box 
when it was her turn to play, or snuff a candle in the 
middle of a game, or ring for a servant till it was fairly 



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CARD-TABLE TALK, 213 

over. She never introduced or connived at miscella- 
neous conversation during its process. iVs she emphati- 
cally observed, cards were cards : and if I ever saw 
unmingled distaste in her fine last-century countenance, 
it was at the airs of a young gentleman of a literary 
turn who had been with difficulty persuaded to take a 
hand, and who, in his excess of candor, declared that 
he thought there was no harm in unbending the 
mind now and then, after serious studies, in recreations 
of that kind ! She could not bear to have her noble 
occupation, to which she wound up her faculties, con- 
sidered in that light. It was her business, her duty, 
the thing she came into the world to do ; and she did 
it. She unbent her mind afterward — over a book." 
(Charles Lamb.) 

WHIST WITH CHARLES LAMB. 

'^Now turn to No. 4, Inner Temple Lane, at ten 
o'clock, when the sedater part of the company are 
assembled, and the happier stragglers are dropping in 
from the play. Let it be an autumn or winter month, 
when the fire is blazing steadily, and the clean- swept 
hearth and whist-tables speak of the spirit of Mrs. Battle, 
and serious looks require ^the rigor of the game.' The 
furniture is old-fashioned and worn, the ceiling low, 
and all things wear an air of comfort and hearty Eng- 
lish welcome. Lamb himself, yet unrelaxed by the glass, 
is sitting with a sort of Quaker primness at the whist- 
table, the gentleness of his melancholy smile half lost 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. 



215 



in his intentness on the game ; his partner, the author 
of ' Political Justice/ is regarding his hand with a 
philosophic but not a careless eye ; Captain Burney, 
only not venerable because so young in spirit, sits 
between them ; and H. C. R., who alone now and 
then breaks the proper silence, to welcome some in- 
coming guest, is his partner, — true winner in the game 
of Hfe, whose leisure, achieved early, is devoted to 
his friends. At another table, just beyond the circle 
which extends from the fire, sit another four. The 
broad, burly, jovial bulk of John Lamb confronts the 
stately but courteous Alsager ; while P., ' his few hairs 
bristhng ' at gentle objurgation, watches his partner, 
M. B., dealing, with ' soul more white ' than the 
hands of which Lamb once said, ^ M., if dirt were 
trumps, what hands you would hold ! ' In one 
corner of the room you may see the pale, earnest 
countenance of Charles Lloyd, who is discoursing ' of 
fate, free-will, fore-knowledge absolute,' with Leigh 
Hunt. . . . Soon the room fills ; in slouches HazHtt from 
the theatre, where his stubborn anger for Napoleon's 
defeat at Waterloo has been softened by Miss Stephens's 
angehc notes. Now and then an actor glances on us 
from ^the rich Cathay' of the world behind the scenes, 
with news of its brighter human-kind, and with looks 
reflecting the pubHc favor. Meanwhile Becky lays the 
cloth on the side-table, under the direction of the most 
quiet, sensible, and kind of women, who soon com- 
pels the younger and more hungry of the guests to 
partake largely of the cold roast lamb or boiled beef^ 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. 217 

the heaps of smoking roasted potatoes, and the vast 
jug of porter. As the hot water and its accompani- 
ments appear, and the severities of whist relax, the 
light of conversation thickens : Hazlitt utters some fine 
criticism w^ith struggling emphasis ; Lamb stammers 
out puns suggestive of wisdom ; the various driblets 
of talk combine into a stream ; while Miss Lamb moves 
gently about to see that each modest stranger is duly 
served, turning, now and then, an anxious, loving eye 
on Charles, which softens into a half- humorous expres- 
sion of resignation to inevitable fate as he mixes his 
second tumbler ! " (Talfourd's Memorials of Lamb.) 



A CATECHISM OF WHIST. 

^^ By a singular coincidence (shall we call it by a pro- 
vision of nature ?) the months which rejoice in the letter 
r are precisely those which are the best adapted for 
the cultivation of whist ; for of course no Christian who 
is not bed-ridden would be willing to be seen with a 
pack of cards in his hands. on any evening between the 
beginning of May and the end of August. Therefore : 

"Lemma /. A rubber should always be succeeded by 
a collation of oysters, either cold or scalloped, which- 
ever you please ; we ourselves are not particular, but 
both are better than either alone. A fitting companion 
to the first, and, like that, founded on the eternal fit- 
ness of things, is 

"Lemma LL A jorum of that celestial liquor which 
gods call nectar and men cup should be kept in con- 



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CARD-TABLE TALK, 



219 



stant circulation and supplied at every interstice of 
the game. We presume that everybody that moves in 
society knows what cup is. . . . 

" Rule I. As soon as ever you have taken up your 
hand, utter an exclamation as if you had received a 
sudden shock, and declare with an oath (or a solemn 
affirmation, if you should happen to be a Quaker) that 
you are the most unlucky devil that ever lived, and 
that you always hold the most horrid cards. If after 
that you should happen to win, your success must of 
course be attributed only to your own masterly play. 
On the other hand, if you should lose, you are thus 
made to present the sublime spectacle of a virtuous 
man continually struggling with adverse fate ; which 
will awe your opponents into admiration and wonder, 
and excite the sympathy of lookers-on. . . . 

" Rule II. When in doubt, lay your cards deliber- 
ately on the table, seize the cup in both hands, and 
take a hearty swig, keeping your lips steeped in the 
Hquor while a person who stutters a Httle might count 
twenty; then ^Idcy anything / A man who acts from 
the inspiration of such a Helicon is like the king, and 
' can do no wrong.' " (Blackwood, xxxviii. 637.) 

GERMAN WHIST. 

Alexander H, Stephens, in Johnson's Cyclopaedia, 
describes a modification of whist, which is current in 
Germany. The old score of ten points for game is 
retained, without counting the honors. The trump is 



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CARD-TABLE TALK, 221 

not determined as usually, but the partner of the dealer 
has the first right to name the trump. If he fails to 
name it, then the dealer, then the left-hand adversary, 
etc. If the side which makes the trump does not make 
one above the book, the adversaries score two for each 
trick they make over the book. 

PREFERENCE, OR SWEDISH WHIST. 

In an elegant little volume, printed for private distri- 
bution. Librarian Linderfelt of Milwaukee expounds 
Preference, another modification of whist. As it has 
superseded English whist in Sweden, he calls it Swed- 
ish whist. There are partners, but these are changed 
after each rubber. The trump is determined by bid- 
ding. The leader has the first choice, then the second 
hand, then the third, and lastly the dealer. Each must 
bid a higher suit or else pass. The suits rank : clubs, 
spades, diamonds, hearts, — clubs being lowest. Higher 
than any of these is preference^ in which no trump is 
employed, — the intrinsic value of the cards determin- 
ing the issue. If the side that makes the trump or 
demands preference loses, the adversaries count double 
for each trick they get above six. The game is twenty 
points. Each trick above six counts, for a game in 
clubs, three ; spades, four ; diamonds, five ; hearts, six ; 
preference, eight points. Honors count as in Enghsh 
whist. Clubs and spades are no longer played as 
trumps, but ser\^e as signals to one's partner to de- 
mand preference, — spades being the more imperative. 



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CARD-TABLE TALK, 223 

SHUFFLING. 

" Clay was fond of shuffling the cards very thoroughly 
after every deal. Having suggested to him that so 
much shuffling was likely to produce wild hands, which 
are disadvantageous to good players, he said, ' I do 
not agree with you at all. I should like to have the 
cards thrown out of a volcano after every deal.' '' (Cav- 
endish, Card Essays, 164.) 

A SHUFFLING MACHINE. 

Sir Marc Isambard Brunei, the celebrated engineer 
and inventor, who in the latter part of the last century 
fortified the harbor of New York and built the Thames 
Tunnel, in response to a playful request on the part of 
Lady Spencer produced a machine for shuffling cards. 
These were placed in a box, a crank was turned, and 
in a few seconds the sides flew open and presented the 
pack divided into four parts and thoroughly mixed. 

WHIST PLAYED BY MACHINERY. 

In " Macmillan's Magazine " for January, 1876, Dr. 
Pole gives an account of a wonderful automaton, exhib- 
ited by Messrs. Maskelyne and Cooke at the Egyptian 
Hall, Piccadilly, London, which, among other things, 
could play whist, — even " the modern scientific game " 
so ably explained by Dr. Pole himself. The name of 
the remarkable figure is Psycho ; he is a little less than 
adult size, and sits cross-legged, in Oriental fashion, on 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. 



225 



an oblong box about 22x18x15 inches. The box, 
with the figure on it, is entirely detached, and is carried 
about by Mr. Maskelyne and an assistant. When in 
action it is placed on the top of a strong hollow cylin- 
der of transparent glass, about ten inches in diameter 
and eighteen inches high. This cyHnder rests on a 
loose wooden platform about four feet square, covered 
with soft baize, and supported at a distance of about 
nine inches clear above the floor of the stage by four 
short legs. Before commencing the performance the 
platform is turned about and exhibited to the audience, 
and the cyhnder is handed round to the spectators for 
them to examine. When in position, persons are re- 
quested to walk round the figure and to pass their 
hands over his head, to satisfy themselves that there 
is no wire or other means of communication between 
the figure and the sides or ceiling of the room. 

A table is now prepared on the stage, three persons 
from the audience are invited to play, and Psycho 
makes the fourth. After cutting for partners, the deal 
takes place, and Psycho's cards are taken up by Mr. 
Alaskelyne and placed upright, one by one, in a frame 
forming the arc of a circle in front of the figure, the 
faces of the cards being toward him and away from 
the other players. W^hen it is Psycho's turn to play, 
his right hand passes with a horizontal circular motion 
over the frame till it arrives at the right card ; he then 
takes this card between his thumb and fingers, and by 
a new vertical movement of the hand and arm he 
extracts it from its place, hfts it high in the air, and 

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CARD-TABLE TALK. 227 

exposes it to the view of the audience ; after which, the 
arm descends again, and the card is taken away from 
the fingers by Mr. Maskelyne and thrown on the table, 
to be gathered into the trick. Besides playing whist, 
or any other game at cards. Psycho can perform several 
tricks of conjuring, and can add and multiply. 

Dr. Pole suggests that these strange results may be 
brought about by pneumatic action. It would not be 
impossible to construct within the figure mechanism 
to be operated by the pressure of a column of air, 
which is controlled, say, by the pressure, — upon a 
concealed treadle under the carpet, — of the foot of 
the operator who is looking over Psycho's cards. Thus 
the air would pass through one of the legs of the plat- 
form, through the tissue of the baize covering it, and 
so into the glass cylinder and the figure above it. 

THE NUMBER OF DIFFERENT HANDS. 

" The number of different hands that an individual 
can hold at whist is simply the number of ways thirteen 
things can be taken out of fifty- two, without having 
two sets of thirteen alike. The answer to this is 635,- 
013,559,600. It is evidently a ^x^^x^n^. whist-hand ii 
A Y B and Z one or all interchange an entire hand. 
It is also to my mind a different whist-haiid if a differ- 
ent trump-card is turned up. If this is admitted, the 
total possible number of whist-hands that can be held 
by all the four players is 697,381,590,951,354,306,910,- 
086,720,000." (Cavendish, Card Essays, 201.) 



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CARD-TABLE TALK, 229 




TRICKS WITH CARDS. 

RICKS with cards involving sleight of hand 
are usually variations or combinations of the 
Pass, the Slip, the Force,, or the Change. 
The Pass^ or Sauter la coicpe, consists in reversing the 
cards in the hand after they have been cut, so that 
they return to the same relative position that they had 
before * being cut. There are at least seven different 
methods of doing this. The Slip is the getting of a 
particular card into a desired position in the pack. 
The Force consists in so managing a number of cards 
that another, person will select a particular one, though 
he is apparently given freedom of choice. It is done 
by holding the cards spread out, face down, in both 
hands and moving them slowly or rapidly from left to 
right or from right to left with the thumb, so that the 
intended card, which is controlled by the little finger, 
will be before the finger of the drawer at just the right 
moment. If the drawer passes by it, the cards are all 
quickly slipped to one side, and the separating and 
shifting begun over again. By the Change one card is 
dexterously substituted for another. There are some 
six ways of doing it. (Taylor, 520.) Palming a card 
consists in skilfully getting the top card of a pack con- 
cealed in the palm of the hand. Tricks of this kind 



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231 



are best performed with small cards, such as are used 
in France. But there are tricks which require no sleight 
of hand, and may be performed with ordinary cards. 
Many of these consist of two elements, — the discovery, 
by the performer, of a certain card, and his disclosure 
of this knowledge in a more or less striking manner. 

''How to Discover a Given Card, — Deal the cards 
into three packs, face upward, and request a spectator 
to note a card, and remember in which heap it is. 
When you have dealt twenty-one cards, throw the 
rest aside, these not being employed in the trick. Ask 
in which heap the chosen card is, and place that heap 
between the other two, and deal again as before. 
Again ask the question, place the heap indicated in the 
middle, and deal again a third time. Note particularly 
the fourth or middle card of each heap, as one or other 
of those three cards will be the card thought of. Ask 
for the last time in which heap the chosen card is,, 
when you may be certain that it was the card which 
you noted as being the middle card of that heap.'^ 
(Hoffmann, 43.) 

"Ho7V to Disclose a Card in a Striking Manner after 
Having Discovered it, — Get the card to the top of the 
pack. Give the pack to some person to hold. The 
cards should be face upward, so that the chosen card 
will be undermost, with the thumb of the holder above 
and the fingers below the pack. The fingers should 
extend under the pack for about an inch, but the thumb 
above not more than half an inch. Request the per- 
son to nip the cards tightly, and as he does so give 



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^2>?> 



them a smart downward rap with your forefinger, which 
will knock all the cards out of his hand, with the excep- 
tion of the lowest card, which will be retained by the 
greater friction of the fingers, and will remain staring 
him in the face. This is a very old and simple finish, 
but it appears marvellous to those who witness it for 
the first time." (Hoffmann, 44.) 

'^ The Four Inseparable Kings, — Take the four kings 
(or any other four cards), and exhibit them fan- wise, 
but secretly place behind the second one two other 
court-cards, which, being thus hidden behind the king, 
will not be visible. The audience being satisfied that 
the four cards are really the four kings, and none other, 
fold them together and place them at the top of the 
pack. Draw attention to the fact that you are about 
to distribute these kings in different parts of the pack. 
Take up the top card, which, being really a king, you 
may exhibit without apparent intention, and place it 
at the bottom. Take the next card, which the specta- 
tors suppose to be also a king, and place it about half 
way down the pack, and the next, in like manner, a 
little higher. Take the fourth card, which, being act- 
ually a king, you may show carelessly, and replace it 
on the top of the pack. You have now really three 
kings at the top and one at the bottom, though the 
audience imagine that they have seen them distributed 
in different parts of the pack, and are proportionately 
surprised, w^hen the cards are cut, to find that all the 
kings are again together. It is best to use knaves or 
queens for the two extra cards." (Hoffmann, 47.) 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. 235 

"To detect which of Four Cards has been turned rou7id 
in your Absence, — It will be found upon examining a 
pack of cards that the white margin round the court- 
cards almost invariably differs in width at the opposite 
ends. The difference is frequently very trifling, but 
is still sufficiently noticeable when pointed out, and 
may be available for a trick which, though absurdly 
simple, has puzzled many. You place four cards of 
the same rank, say four queens, in a row, face up- 
wards, taking care that the wider margins of the cards 
are all one way. You then leave the room, and invite 
the company to turn round lengthwise during your 
absence any one or more of the four cards. On your 
return you can readily distinguish which card has 
been so turned, as the wider margin of such card will 
now be where the narrower margin was originally." 
(Hoffmann, 57.) 

Some mathematical tricks are interesting. For in- 
stance, the sum of the numbers of any two cards drawn 
from the pack may be readily told in this wise. The 
small cards must be reckoned by their spots, but each 
face-card should be counted ten. Some one having 
drawn two cards, tell him to take as many cards from 
the pack (each card counting one) as will make the 
numbers of the two cards selected amount to twenty- 
five each. Now, pretending to consult the cards re- 
maining, count them. They will equal in number the 
sum of the spots of the two cards drawn. Suppose he 
drew a ten and a seven ; he must add 1 5 to the former 
and 18 to the latter to make them equal 25 each. 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. 237 

2 + 15 + 18 = 35 cards drawn. 52 — 35 = 17 = 
10+7, the spots on the first two cards. Or do not 
touch the cards, but tell him to draw two, subtract the 
number of each firom 26, add the two remainders, and 
tell you the sum. This you will mentally subtract firom 
52, and the remainder is the sum of the spots on the 
first two cards. So 26 — 10 = 16, and 26 — 7=19; 
16 + 19 = 35 ; 52 — 35 = 17 ; but 17 = 10 + 7. 
A person who performs feats of any kind should always 
be prepared for any pertinent — in such cases imperti- 
nent — remark or objection that may be made. He 
must never be put out and must be able to vary the 
details of his tricks. (Adapted from Taylor.) 



CARD-SHARPIXG. 

The devices of card-sharpers are too numerous to 
be detailed. !Many of them are but variations of cer- 
tain common elements. The Pass, or Saiiter la coupe, 
is sometimes used. Of course a cheat early learns to 
supply himself with duplicates of good cards in order 
that he may substitute them for the inferior cards that 
may be dealt to him, as well as how to get rid of cards 
that he cannot play to advantage. So cards are dropped 
on the floor and never acknowledged when found, while 
some are held in a vice consisting of the knee and the 
table-leg. 

How '^Bill Nye" laid his plans to victimize the 
"heathen Chinee," but was outdone "by the same," 
Bret Harte has told in 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. 



239 



PLAIN LANGUAGE FROM TRUTHFUL JAMES. 

Which I wish to remark, 

And my language is plain, 
That for ways that are dark 

And for tricks that are vain, 
The heathen Chinee is peculiar, 

Which the same I would rise to explain. 

Ah Sin was his name ; 

And I shall not deny, 
In regard to the same, 

What that name might imply ; 
But his smile it was pensive and childlike, 

As I frequent remarked to Bill Nye. 

It w^as August the third. 

And quite soft w^as the skies ; 
Which it might be inferred 

That Ah Sin was likew^ise : 
Yet he played it that day upon William 

And me in a way I despise. 

Which we had a small game. 

And Ah Sin took a hand : 
It was Euchre. The same 

He did not understand ; 
But he smiled as he sat by the table, 

With tlTe smile that was childlike and bland. 

Yet the cards they w^ere stocked 

In a way that I grieve. 
And my feelings were shocked 

At the state of Nye's sleeve, 
Which was stuffed full of aces and bowers, 

And the same with intent to deceive. 



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CARD-TABLE TALK, 241 

But the hands that were played 

By that heathen Chinee, 
And the points that he made, 

Were quite frightful to see, — 
Till at last he put down the right bower, 

Which the same Nye had dealt unto me. 

Then, I looked up at Nye, 

And he gazed upon me ; 
And he rose with a sigh, 

And said, " Can this be ? 
We are ruined by Chinese cheap labor; '* 

And he went for that heathen Chinee. 

In the scene that ensued 

I did not take a hand ; 
But the floor it was strewed 

Like the leaves on the strand 
With the cards that Ah Sin had been hiding. 

In the game he "did not understand.'' 

In his sleeves, which were long, 

He had twenty-four packs, — 
Which was coming it strong ; 

Yet I state but the facts. 
And we found on his nails, which were taper. 

What is frequent in tapers, — that ''s wax. 

Which is why I remark. 

And my language is plain, 
That for ways that are dark 

And for tricks that are vain, 
The heathen Chinee is peculiar, — 

Which the same I am free to maintain. 



" At the Licensed Victuallers' Ball, a few years ago, 
a person in the card-room was observed to scratch his 

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CARD-TABLE TALK, 243 

neck rather more frequently than the usages of good 
society warranted. He was suspected, watched, and 
detected, having a card receptacle inside his coat-collar. 
He was given over to the police, prosecuted, and 
severely punished . ' ' (Taylor, 515.) 

Certain cards are also marked on the back, or pricked 
with a pin in a significant way, so as to make them 
recognizable when in the hands of an opponent or 
when being dealt out. Cards are bent for this pur- 
pose, as well as to make them a little shorter than 
the others, and so guide the cutting of the pack. But 
this is more usually accomplished by slightly shaving 
the edges. Such cards, already prepared, are often 
advertised in certain newspapers under the heading, 
" Cards to win with.'' 

A dishonest dealer sometimes holds the pack in such 
a way that his partner, by crouching down a little or 
by leaning back in his chair, may see the face of every 
card dealt. Honest but unskilful dealers sometimes 
unwittingly fall into this suspicious mode of dealing. 

But the most ancient of cheats is the '' telegraph." 
A confederate, acting either as partner or as an appar- 
ently disinterested observer, looks over the hand of the 
dupe and telegraphs to his confederate the desired 
information by various degrees of elevation of the eye- 
brows, significant movements of the lips, protrusion of 
the tongue, etc. In early days this was done, espe- 
cially in taverns, by various modes of placing the fin- 
gers on the stem of the pipe the cheat was smoking, 
and the process was called '^piping." 



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CARD-TABLE TALIC, 245 

FORTUNE-TELLING WITH CARDS. 

Sortilege was practised from the earliest times. 
Those that believe that European cards were brought 
from India by Gypsies, regard this as their primitive 
use. The first book on the subject was published at 
Venice in 1540. The following brief statement of the 
usual system employed in '^ telling fortunes " by means 
of cards is condensed from Taylor's work. The fol- 
lowing abbreviations are employed : Kg., King ; Q., 
Queen ; Kv., Knave ; A., Ace ; H., Hearts ; D., Dia- 
monds ; C, Clubs ; S., Spades. 

In general, a man of very fair complexion is repre- 
sented by Kg. D. ; a woman by Q. D. Persons of less 
fair complexion by Kg. and Q. H. ; a man and woman 
of very dark complexion by Kg. and Q. S. ; while those 
not quite so dark are represented by C. But a widow, 
no matter how fair, can be represented only by Q. S. 
A. H. denotes the house of the person consulting the 
decrees of fate ; A. C, a letter ; A. D., a wedding- 
ring ; A. S., sickness and death ; Kv. D. is a selfish 
and deceitful friend ; Kv. H. is a sincere, unselfish 
friend ; Kv. S. is a lawyer, a person to be avoided ; 
Kv. C. is a sincere friend, but of very touchy temper ; 
Kvs. also represent the thoughts of their respective 
Kgs. and Qs. Several D. coming together signify the 
receipt of money ; several H. denote love ; a concourse 
of C. foretells drunkenness and debauchery, with their 
consequent ill-health ; and a number of S. together 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. 247 

indicate disappointment. Moreover, Kg. D. is quick to 
anger^ but easily appeased ; while Q. D. is fond of gay- 
ety and of rather a coquettish disposition. Kg. H. is 
slow to anger, but when put in a passion is appeased 
with great difficulty ; he is good-natured, but obstinate ; 
his Q. is a model of sincere affection, devotion, and 
prudence. Kg. S. is so ambitious that in matters of 
love and business he is much less scrupulous than he 
ought to be ; while his Q. is a person not to be pro- 
voked with impunity. Kg. and Q. C are everything 
that can be desired : he is honorable, true, and affec- 
tionate ; she is agreeable, genteel, and witty. 

Following are the interpretations of the minor cards. 
10 D., wealth, honorable success in business. 9 D,, 
roving disposition combined with successful adventures 
in foreign lands. 8 D., a happy marriage, though per- 
haps late in life. 7 D., satire, scandal. 6 D., "fearly 
marriage, succeeded by widowhood. 5 D.. unexpected 
but generally good news. 4 D., an unfaithful friend ; 
a secret betrayed. 3 D., domestic quarrels, trouble, 
unhappiness. 2 D., a clandestine engagement (a card 
of caution). 10 H., health and happiness, with man^ 
children. 9 H., wealth and good position in society. 
8 H., fine clothes ; mixing in good society ; invitations 
to balls, theatres, parties. 7 H., good friends. 6 H., 
honorable courtship. 5 H., a present. 4 H., domes- 
tic troubles caused by jealousy. 3 H., poverty, shame, 
and sorrow, the result of imprudence (a card of cau- 
tion). 2 H., success in Hfe, and a happy marriage 



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CARD'TABLE TALK. 249 

attained by virtuousi discretion. 10 S., disgrace, crime, 
imprisonment ; death on the scaffold. 9 S., grief, ruin, 
sickness, death (a card of caution) . 8 S., great danger 
from imprudence. 7 S., unexpected poverty through 
the death of a relative (a card of caution). 6 S., a 
child ; to the unmarried a card of caution. 5 S., great 
danger from giving way to bad temper. 4 S., sickness. 
3 S., tears; a journey by land (a card of caution). 
2 S., a removal. 10 C, unexpected wealth, through 
the death of a relative. 9 C, danger through drunk- 
enness (a card of caution). 8 S., danger from cove- 
tousness (a card of caution). 7 C, a prison; danger 
from opposite sex. 6 C, competence by honorable 
industry. 5 C, a happy though not wealthy marriage 
(a card of caution). 4 C, misfortune through caprice 
or inconstancy (a card of caution). 3 C, quarrels ; it 
also has reference to time, signifying three years, three 
months, three weeks, or three days, and denotes that a 
person will be married more than once. 2 C, disap- 
pointment ; vexation. 

The manner of operation is as follows : The cards 
are shuffled and cut into three parts by the inquirer. 
The fortune-teller lays the cards, one by one, face up 
on the table, in rows of nine each, excepting the last. 
Every ninth card has an ominous import. Then the 
cards are read, as in the following example. The young 
lady being fair, but not too fair, is represented by Q. H. 
Sad to say, her lover (Kg. D.) is found flirting with a 
widow (Q. S.),rich in this world's goods (being accom- 
panied by 10 D.) . But her lover's thoughts (Kv. D.) ai-e 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. 25 I 

directed toward her home (A. H.) ; a letter (A. S.) and 
a wedding-ring (A. D.) are in close combination, evi- 
dently signifying that though the lover is flirting with the 
widow, he is thinking of sending a letter with an offer of 
marriage to the young lady herself. There is a legacy 
(10 C.) in store for the seeker after fortune ; but a 
lawyer (Kv. S.) stands between her and it, who will 
cause some vexation (2 C.) and disappointment. A 
sincere friend (Kv. H.) will assist to put matters right. 
The unfaithful friend (4 D.) will find both satire and 
scandal (7 D.) helpless to injure our interesting queen 
of hearts. K present (s H.) will soon be received by 
her, honorable courtship (6 H.) will lead her to a 
happy marriage (2 H.), the reward of her virtuous dis- 
cretion ; health and happiness and troops of children 
(10 H.) will be her enviable lot. Do this young lady's 
thoughts, represented by the Kv. H., ever stray far 
from home ? Yes, look, there they are far away with 
the old, hot-tempered, dark-complexioned lover (Kg. S.), 
who, as is plainly shown by his being accompanied by 
the ten of diamonds, is prosperously engaged at the 
AustraHan diggings, or elsewhere. Does he ever think 
of his old flame, the heart-complexioned young lady 
now consulting the cards in England? No. His 
thoughts (Kv. S.) are fixed on that very fair but rather 
gay and coquettish lady, (Q. D.) : they are only 
divided by a few good hearts, one of them (6 H.) re- 
presenting honorable courtship. Count now from that 
6 H. to the ninth card from it, and lo ! it is a wedding- 
ring (A. D.) : they will be married in less than a year. 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. 253 




CLERGYMEN AND CARDS. 

N spite of special decrees against it, clergy- 
men, especially during the sixteenth and sev- 
enteenth centuries, were much given to 
playing at cards. Saint Francis de Sales played and 
cheated, and excused himself by the plea that what he 
gained he gave to the poor. But Cardinal Mazarin 
was perhaps the worst of gambling and cheating di- 
vines ; and '^ it is related by an eye-witness that when 
he was on his death-bed he still continued to play at 
cards, one of the company holding his ' hand,' and 
that he was thus employed w^hen he received the 
Pope's plenary indulgence, together with the viaticum, 
as a prince of the Church, from the Papal nuncio." 
(Chatto, 310.) Pope Leo X. was fond of cards, and 
is credited with having at one time saved a game by a 
trick so skilfully planned and executed that it would 
have done honor to the most expert Mississippi gam- 
bler of former days. It was no uncommon thing for 
priests, when playing with laymen, to stake masses and 
prayers against the money of the latter. 

In ''The Women's Advocate" (2d ed., 1683) we 
read of a parson too fond of play, who '' put up his 
cards in his gown-sleeve in haste when the clerk came 
and told him that the last stave was a-singing. In the 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. 



255 



height of his reproving the parish for their neglect of 
holy duties, upon the throwing out of his zealous arm, 
the cards dropped out of his sleeve and flew about the 
church." The hearty laugh that ensued did not em- 
barrass him. " He bid one boy take up a card, and 
asked him what it was. ' The king of clubs,' answered 
the boy. Then he bid another boy take up another 
card. ' What is that ? ' ' The knave of spades.' ' Well,' 
quo' he, ' now tell me, who made ye ? ' The boy could 
not well tell. Quo' he to the next, ^Who redeemed 
ye?' That was a harder question. ' Look ye,' quo' 
the Parson, ' you think that was an accident, and laugh 
at it j but I did it on purpose to shew you that had 
you taught your children their catechism as well as 
to know their cards, they would have been better pro- 
vided to answer material questions when they came to 
church.' " 

" The clergy, especially in the West of England, 
were formerly devoted to whist. About the beginning 
of the century there was a whist- club in a country 
town of Somersetshire, composed mostly of clergymen, 
that met every Sunday evening in the back parlor of a 
barber. Four of these were acting as pall-bearers at 
the funeral of a reverend brother, when a delay oc- 
curred from the grave not being ready, or some other 
cause, and the coffin was set down in the chancel. By 
way of whiling away the time, one of them produced a 
pack of cards from his pocket and proposed a rubber. 
The rest gladly assented, and they were deep in their 
game, using the coffin as their table, when the sexton 



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CARD-TABLE TALK, 257 

came to announce that the preparations were com- 
plete. We have carefully verified the fact that they 
played long whist, and we suspect that whist has been 
less popular in the church since the introduction of 
short, by reason of its inferior gravity. But we have 
seen short whist played by a member of the episcopal 
body, and a very eminent one, — the venerable Bishop 
of Exeter (Phillpotts) ; one adversary being the late 
Dean of St. Paul's (Milman), the other an American 
diplomatist (Mason), and his partner a distinguished 
foreigner (Count Strzelecki), whose whist was hardly 
on a par with his scientific acquirements and social 
popularity. The two church dignitaries played a steady, 
sound, orthodox game. The bishop bore a run of ill- 
luck like a Christian and a bishop ; but when (after 
the diplomatist had puzzled him by a false card) the 
Count lost the game by not returning his trump, the 
excellent prelate looked as if about to bring the rub- 
ber to a conclusion as he once brought a controversy 
with an archbishop, — namely, by the bestowal of his 
blessing; which the archbishop, apparently apprehen- 
sive of its acting by the rule of contraries, earnestly 
intreated him to take back." (Hay ward, 462.) 

WESLEY AND WHIST. 

John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church, 
at one time told his congregation "' that when he was 
at college he was particularly fond of the devil's pops 
(or cards), and said that every Saturday he was one of 

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CARD'TABLE TALK, 259 

a constant party at whist, not only for the afternoon, 
but also for the evening. ' But/ continued he, ' the 
latter part of my time there I became acquainted with 
the Lord ; I used to hold communion with him. On 
my first acquaintance I used to talk with the Lord once 
a week ; then every day ; from that to twice a day : till 
at last the intimacy so increased that he appointed a 
meeting once in every four hours.' He recollected, he 
said, the last Saturday he ever played at cards, that the 
rubber at whist was longer than he expected, and on 
observing the tediousness of the game, he pulled out 
his watch ; w^hen to his shame he found it was some 
minutes past eight, which was beyond the time he had 
appointed to meet the Lord. He thought the devil 
had certainly tempted him to stay beyond his hour ; 
he therefore suddenly gave his cards to a gentleman 
near him to finish the game, and went to the place ap- 
pointed, beseeching forgiveness for his crime, and re- 
solved never to play with the devil's pops again. This 
resolution he had never broken ; and what was more 
extraordinary, that his brother and sister, though dis- 
tant from Cambridge, experienced signs of grace on 
that same day and that same hour in the month of 
October." (Memoirs of Tate Wilkinson, York, 1790, 
iii. 9.) 

CARD SERMONS. 

''^John Fox tells of a sermon of Bishop Latimer's, 
preached at St. Edward's church, Cambridge, the Sun- 
day before Christmas, 1527-28, ' concerning his playing 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. 261 

at cards,' in which he dealt out an exposition of the pre- 
cepts of Christianity (seep. 169). ' It seems/ says Fuller, 
' he suited his sermon rather to the ti77ie than the text, 
which was the Baptist's question to our Lord, Who art 
thou ? (John i. 19,) taking thereby occasion to conform 
his discourse to the playing at cards, making the heart 
trmmph. This blunt preaching was in those days 
admirably effectual, which would be justly ridiculous 
in our age. I remember,' adds Fuller, ' in my time a 
country minister preached at St. Mary's from Rom. xii. 
3 : As God hath dealt to every man the measure of 
faith. In a fond imitation of Latimer's sermon he prose- 
cuted the metaphor of dealing, — that men should play 
above board, i. e. avoid all dissembling, not pocket cards, 
but improve their gifts and graces, (take good care of 
their trumps, play promptly when their turn came,) 
follow suit, etc. All which produced nothing but 
laughter in the audience.' " (Gough, Archseol., viii.) 

RICHARD MIDDLETON'S CARDS. 

The following is one of several " spiritual exposi- 
tions " of the pack of cards. ''The Perpetual Alma- 
nack ; or. Gentleman- soldier's Prayer-Book : shewing 
how one Richard Middleton was taken before the 
Mayor of the city he was in for using cards in church 
during Divine Service : being a droll, merry, and hu- 
morous account of an odd affair that happened to a 
private soldier in the 60th Regiment of Foot. 

'' The Serjeant commanded his party to the church, 



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and when the parson had ended his prayer, he took his 
text, and all of them that had a Bible, pulled it out to 
find the text. But this soldier had neither Bible, Alma- 
nack, nor Common Prayer-Book, but he put his hand 
in his pocket and pulled out a pack of cards, and 
spread them before him as he sat ; and while the par- 
son was preaching, he first kept looking at one card 
and then at another. The serjeant of the company 
saw him, and said, ' Richard, put up your cards, for 
this is no place for them.' ' Never mind that,' said 
the soldier, ^you have no business with me here.' 
Now the parson had ended his sermon and all was 
over ; the soldiers repaired to the churchyard, and the 
commanding officer gave the word of command to fall 
in^ which they did. The serjeant of the city came, 
and took the man prisoner. ^ Man, you are my pris- 
oner,' said he. ^ Sir/ said the soldier, Svhat have I 
done that I am your prisoner ? ' ' You have played a 
game of cards in the church.' ' No,' said the soldier, 
^ I have not played a game, for I have only looked at 
a pack.' ' No matter for that, you are my prisoner.^ 
^ Where must we go ? ' said the soldier. ' You must 
go before the mayor,' said the serjeant. So he took 
him before the mayor; and when they came to the 
mayor's house, he was at dinner. When he had dined 
he came down to them, and said, ^Well, serjeant, what 
do you want with me ? ' ^ I have brought a soldier 
before you for playing at cards in the church.' 'What, 
that soldier?' ^ Yes.' ^Well, soldier, what have you 
to say for yourself? ' * Much, sir, I hope.' ^ Well and 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. 265 

good ; but if you have not, you shall be punished the 
worst that ever man was.' ^ Sir/ said the soldier, 'I. 
have been five weeks upon the march, and have but 
little to subsist on, and am without Bible, Almanack, 
or Common Prayer-Book, or anything but a pack of 
cards : I hope to satisfy your honour of the purity of 
my intentions.' 

" Then the soldier pulled out of his pocket the pack 
of cards, which he spread before the mayor ; he then 
began with the Ace. ' When I see the Ace,' said he, 
' it puts me in mind that there is one God only ; when 
I see the Deuce, it puts me in mind of the Father and 
the Son ; when I see the Trey, it puts me in mand of 
the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; when I see the 
Four, it puts me in mind of the four EvangeHsts that 
penned the Gospel, viz., Matthew, Mark, Luke, and 
John ; when I see the Five it puts me in mind of the 
five wise Virgins who trimmed their lamps : there were 
ten, but five were fooHsh, who were shut out. When 
I see the Six, it puts me in mind that in six days the 
Lord made Heaven and Earth ; when I see the Seven, 
it puts me in mind that on the seventh day God rested 
from all the works which he had created and made, 
wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and hal- 
lowed it. When I see the Eight, it puts me in mind 
of the eight righteous persons that weife saved when 
God drowned the world, viz., Noah, his wife, three 
sons, and their wives ; when I see the Nine, it puts me 
in mind of nine Lepers that were cleansed by our 
Saviour : there were ten, but nine never returned God 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. 267 

thanks. When I see the Ten, it puts me in mind of 
the Ten Commandments that God gave to Moses on 
Mount Sinai on the two tablets of stone.' He took 
the Knave, and laid it aside. ' When I see the Queen, 
it puts me in mind of the Queen of Sheba, who came 
from the furthermost parts of the world to hear the 
wisdom of King Solomon, for she was as wise a woman 
as he was a man ; for she brought fifty boys and fifty 
girls all clothed in boys' apparel, to show before King 
Solomon, for him to tell which were boys and which 
were girls. But he could not tell, until he called for 
water for them to wash themselves : the girls washed 
up to their elbows, and the boys only up to their 
wrists j so King Solomon told by that. And when I 
see the King, it puts me in mind of the great King of 
Heaven and Earth, which is God Almighty, and like- 
wise his majesty, King George, to pray for him.' 

" ' Well,' said the mayor, ' you have a very good 
description of all the cards, except one, which is lack- 
ing.' ' Which is that? ' said the soldier. ' The Knave,' 
said the mayor. ^ Oh, I can give your honour a very 
good description of that, if your honour won't be angry.' 
' No ; I will not,' said the mayor, ' if you will not term 
me to be the knave.' ^Well,' said the soldier, ^the 
greatest that I know is the sergeant of the city, that 
brought me here.' ^I don't know,' said the mayor, 
' that he is the greatest knave, but I am sure that he is 
the greatest fool.' 

" ' When I count how many spots there are in a pack 
of cards, I find there are 365 : there are so many days 



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CARD-TABLE TALK, 269 

in a year. When I count how many cards there are in 
a pack, I find there are 5 2 : there are so many weeks 
in a year. When I count how many tricks in a pack, I 
find there are thirteen : there are so many months [of 
four weeks each] in a year.' 

'' Then the mayor called for a loaf of bread, a piece 
of good cheese, and a pot of beer, and gave the soldier 
a piece of money, bidding him go about his business, 
saying he was the cleverest man he had ever seen/' 

CARDS AT CHRISTMAS. 

Christmas early became the card -playing season. 
The beginning of this we saw in Margery Paston's let- 
ter (p. Ill), and we have also found (p. 147) that at 
Christm.as only were cards allowed the working classes. 
From Stow's ^^ Survey of London," page 79, we learn 
that the holidays lasted " from All-hallows evening to 
the day after Candlemas-day, when there was, among 
other sports, playing at cards for counters, nailes, and 
points, in ever}^ house, more for pastime than for gain." 
But the license of the season was soon abused, and 
Christmas merry-making became a disgrace to England. 
In 1583 Stubbes, in his ^'Anatomic of Abufes," com- 
plains that '' efpecially at Chriftmas time, there is 
nothing els ufed but Cardes, Dice. Tables, Mafkyng, 
Mummyng, BowHng, and fuch like fooleries. And the 
reafon is, thei think thei have a commiffion and pre- 
rogative that tyme to do what thei lift, and to follow 
what vanitie they will." 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. 271 



A SATIRE ON CARDING. 

A new Proposal for the better Regulation of Qua- 
drille ; By Dr. S 1. [Condensed.] 

WHEREAS the noble Game of Quadrille has been 
found to be of great Ufe to the Commonwealth^ 
particularly as it helps to kill Time that lies heavily on 
our Hands, and to pafs away Life, which feems too long 
while we have it, and too fhort when we come to part with 
it: As it fuppreffes all Wit in Converfation, which is apt 
to turn into Scandal ; all Pohticks, which are ofFenlive to 
Governments, and all Reading, which is injurious to the 
eyes. 

And whereas divers Ladies are tardy and come late to 
the Rendezvous, being detained by the paltry Cares of a 
Family, or a nap after Dinner, or by hooking in a few 
Street Vifits at Doors where they expect to be denied 
and are fometimes cruelly bit ; while the true Profeffors, 
who confider the Shortnefs of Life, and the Value of 
precious Time, are impatiently waiting for such Loiterers. 

Now, in order to prevent thofe ill-bred and injurious 
Pra6lices for the future, and to the Intent that every Lady 
may have due Notice of the appointed Hour: 

// is hereby propofed, That a Subfcription be fet on foot 
for ere6ling a fquare Tower in the Middle of St Stephen'' s 
Green^ and that a Bell be hung in the fame, large enough 
to be heard over the Parifhes of St Aiine, St Andrew, 
and St Peter: That the faid Bell fhall be chriftened. 



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CARD-TABLE TALK, 



273 



according to the Rites of the Roman Church ; and that 
the Godfathers and the Godmothers fhall call it the 
Great Tom of Quadrille : That the faid Bell fhall be 
toll'd, beginning a Quarter before Six in the Evening, and 
ending at Six. (In the mean Time all the little Church- 
Bells fhall ceafe their Babblings, that Tom may be more 
diftinctly heard). 

And if, upon fuch legal Notice, any Lady of the Party 
fhall not be ready on the Spot, to draw for her Place 
before the laft Stroke of Toinj it is propofed that the 
Lady making Default fhall at the next Party-meeting 
take the chair neareft the Door, or againft a crack'd Pan- 
nel in the Wainfcot, and have no fcreen at her Back ; fhe 
fhall alfo lay down 5s by way of Fine, for the Ufe of 
the Poor; or, on Failure thereof, not to handle a Card 
that Night, but Dtinuny be fubftituted in her room. 

And that Parties may not be difappointed by Excufes 
of a Cold, &c. when it is too late to beat up for a new 
Recruit, it is propofed that no fuch Excufe fhall be ad- 
mitted unlefs certified under the Hand of fome graduate 
Phyfician : and for want of fuch Certificate the Default- 
refs to be amerced as aforefaid at the next Meeting. But 
if, for the unfeafonable Hours, her Huf band fhould with- 
hold her Pin Money, or chain her by the Leg to the Bed- 
poft, fhe fhall incur no Penalty for her Non- Appearance. 
But no Plea of a Hufband newly buried, or of Weeds 
delayed by the Manteau Makers, or other Matter of mere 
Ceremony, fhall be in any wife admitted. 

And it is ficrther propofed^ That the faid Great Tom 
fliall be toll'd a Quarter before eleven precifely ; after 
which no Pool fhall be made, that the Ladies may have a 
Quarter of an Hour for adjufting their Play-purfes and 
faying their Prayers. (Gentleman's Magazine, July, 1736.) 

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CARD-TABLE TALK. 275 



THE ETTRICK SHEPHERD ON CARD- 
PLAYING. 

North, Gaming is not a vice, then, in the country, 
James ? 

Shepherd, There ^s Kttle or nae sic thing as gamblin' 
in the kintra, sir. You 'II fin' a pack o' cairds in mony 
o' the houses, but no in them a' ; for some gucle fathers o' 
families think them the deevil's buiks, and sure aneuch 
when ower muckle read they begin to smell o' sulphur 
and Satan. 

N, Why, James, how can old people, a little dim- 
eyed or so, while an occasional evening away better 
than at an innocent and cheerful game at cards ? 

Sh. Haud your haun' a wee, Mr. North. I 'm no 
sayin' ony thing to the reverse. But I was sayin' that 
there are heads o' families that abhor cairds, and would 
half kill their sons and daughters were they to bring a 
pack into the house. Neither you nor me wull blame 
them for sic savin' prejudice. The austere Calvinistic 
spirit canna thole to think that the knave o' spades 
should be lying within twa three inches o' the Bible. 
The auld stern man wud as soon forgie the intro- 
duction into the house o' base ballads o' sinfu' love, 
and wishes that the precincts be pure o' his ain fire- 
side. Though I take a ggem o' whust now and then 



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CARD-TABLE TALK, 277 

myseP, yet I boo to the principle, and I venerate the 
adherence till't in the high-souled patriarchs of the 
Covenant. 

N. Perhaps such strict moraHty is scarcely practica- 
ble in our present condition. 

Sh, What ! do you maintain that cairds are absolutely 
necessary in a puir man's house ? Tuts ! As for auld 
dim-eyed people, few o' them, except they be blin' 
a'thegither, that canna read big prent wi^ povverfu' 
specs, and they can aye get, at the warst, some bit 
wee idle Oe to read out aloud to its grannies, without 
expense o' oil or cawnel, by the heartsome ingle-light. 
You '11 generally fin' that auld folk that plays cairds, 
have been raither freevolous, and no muckle addicked 
to thocht, — unless they 're greedy, and play for the 
pool, which is fearsome in auld age ; for what need 
they care for twa three brass penny-pieces, for ony 
ither purpose than to buy nails for their coffin ? 

N, You push the argument rather far, James. 

Sh, Na, sir. Avarice is a failing o' auld age sure 
aneuch, and shouldna be fed by the Lang Ten. I 'm 
aye somewhat sad when I see folk o' eighty haudin' 
up the trumps to their rheumy een, and shaking their 
heads, whether they wull or no, ower a gude and a bad 
haun' alike. Then, safe on us ! only think o' them 
cheatin', revokin', and marking mair than they ought 
wi' the counters ! 

N. The picture is strongly colored ; but could you 
not paint another less revolting, nay, absolutely pleas- 
ant, nor violate the truth of nature ? 



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CARD-TABLE TALK, 



279 



Sh, I 'm no quite sure ; perhaps I micht. In 
anither condition o' life, in towns, and among folk 
o' a higher rank, I dinna deny that I hae seen auld 
leddies playing cairds very composedly, and without 
appearin' to be doin' onything that 's wrang. Before 
you judge richtly o' ony ae thing in domestic life, you 
maun understan' the hail constitution o' the economy. 
Noo, auld leddies in towns dress somewhat richly and 
superbly, wi' ribbons and laces and jewels even, and 
caps mounted wi' flowers and feathejs ; and I 'm no 
blamin' them. And then they dine out, and gang to 
routes, and gie dinners and routes in return, back to 
hunders o' their friends and acquaintance. Noo, wi' 
sic a style and fashion o' life as that, caird-playing 
seems to be somewhat accordant. If taken in modera- 
tion and as a quiet pastime, and no made a trade o', 
or profession, for sake o' filthy lucre, I grant it harm- 
less ; and gin it makes the auld leddies happy, what 
richt hae I to mint ony objections? God bless them, 
man ! far be it frae me to curtail the resources o' ould 
age. Let them play on ; and all I wish is, they may 
never lose either their temper, their money, nor their 
natural rest. 

N. And I say, God bless you, James ! for your senti- 
ments do honor to humanity. 

Sh. As for young folks — lads and lasses like — when 
the gudeman and his wife are gaen to bed, what 's the 
harm in a ggem at cairds? It's a chearfu', noisy sicht 
o' comfort and confusion. Sic luckin' into ane anither's 
haun's ! Sic fause shufflin' ! Sic unfair dealin' ! Sic 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. 28 1 

winkin' to tell your pairtner that ye hae the king or the 
ace ! And when that wunna do, sic kickin' o' shins 
and treadin' on taes aneath the table — aften the wrang 
anes ! Then down wi' your haiin' o' cairds in a clash 
on the board, because you \ e ane ower few, and the 
coof maun lose his deal ! Then what gigglin' amang 
the lasses ! What amicable, nay, love-quarrels, between 
pairtners ! Jokin' and jeestin' and tauntin' and toozlin', 
the cawnel blawn out, and the soun' o' a thousan' 
kisses ! That 's caird-playin' in the kintra, Mr. North ; 
and where 's the man amang ye that wull daur to say 
that it 's no a pleasant pastime o' a winter's nicht, w^hen 
the snaw is cumin' doon the lum, or the speat 's roarin' 
amang the mirk mountains ? 

N, Wilkie himself, James, is not more than your 
equal. 

Sh, O man, Mr. North, sir, my heart is wae, my 
soul 's sick, and my spirit 's wrathfu', to think o' thae 
places in great cities which they ca' — Hells ! 

N. Thank Heaven, my dear James, that I never 
was a gambler, nor, except once, to see the thing, 
ever in a hell. But it was a stupid and passionless 
sight, a place of mean misery, altogether unworthy 
of its name. 

Sh. I 'm glad you never went back, and that the 
deevil was in the dumps ; for they say that some nichts 
in thae hells, when Satan and Sin sit thegither on ae 
chair, he wi' his arm roun' the neck o' that Destruction 
his daughter, a horrible temptation invades men's hearts 
and souls, drivin' and draggin' them on to the doom o' 



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CARD-TABLE TALK, 283 

everlasting death. ... I ance dreamed I was in ane o' 
thae hells. I faund mysel suddenly, without warnin' 
and without wonder, (for wha wonders at changes even 
in the laws o' Nature hersel in dreams?) in a lamp- 
lighted ha' furnished like a palace, and fu' o' we el- 
dressed company, the feck o' them sittin' round a great 
green central table, wi' a' the paraphernalia o' destruc- 
tion, and a' the instruments o' that dreadfu' trade. 

N. You did not, I hope, James, recognize any of 
our friends there ? 

Sh. No, sir, I did not; yet although a' the faces 
were new to me, I didna feel as if they were new, but 
I joined amang them without askin' questions wha they 
were, and was in a manner Vv^hirl'd about in the same 
vortex. 

N. James, you surely did not play? 

Sh. Nae questions. Some o' the company I took 
a likin' to, — fine, young, tall, elegant chiels, some 0' 
them wi' black stocks, like officers out o' regimentals. 
And oh ! sir, wad you believe it ? twa three that I was 
sure were o' the clergy, and ane or twa were bairns, 
that couldna be aboon saxteen. A' these, and ithers 
beside, I felt my heart warm towards, and melt too wi' 
a sensation maist sickenin' o' kindness and pity ; for 
although they tried to be merry and careless, atween 
the chances o' the game their een and their features 
betrayed the agitation o' their souls, and I couldna 
but wonder why the puir deluded creatures pat them- 
sels voluntarily into sic rackin' misery. 

N. These were the pigeons of your vision, James. . . . 



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CARD^TABLE TALK. 285 

Sh, Then, oh, sir ! oh, sir, only think on 't : white, 
silvery- haired heads belanging to men atween seventy 
and eighty years o' age, or perhaps ayont four-score, 
were interposed amang the sitters round that terrible 
table. Some o' these auld men had as reverend coun- 
tenances as ony elder o' the kirk, — high and intillec- 
tual noses and foreheads, some wi' gold-mounted specs, 
— and they held the cairds in their haun's just as if 
they had been Bibles, wi' grave and solemn, ay, even 
pious expression. And ever and anon great shoals 
o' siller were becomin' theirs, which they scarcely 
pretended to look at ; but still they continued and 
continued playin', hke images. 

N. No dream that. You must have been in a hell. 

Sh, Whisht ! But a' the scene began to break up 
into irregularity ; for the soul in sleep is like a ship in 
an arm o' the sea amang mountains. . . . 

N, The police-officers, I presume^ broke your dream. 

Sh, No, Mr. North, it was finally my ain distracted 
spirit that kicked and spurred itsel' awake. But you 
shall hear. The goblins a' began to rage without ony 
apparent cause, and the hail pairty to toss about like 
trees in a storm, frae the bairns to the auld men. 
And a' at ance there was a flash and the crack o' a 
pistol, and a bonnie fair-hair'd boy fell aff his chair a' 
in a low, for the discharge had set him on fire. And 
bluidy, bluidy was his pale face as his ain brither lifted 
his shattered head frae the floor. 

N, My God ! James, did you not wake then ? 

Sh, Awake ! I didna ken I was sleepin' ; I wush I 



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CARD-TABLE TALK. 287 

had, for it was a dismal hour. Nane o' the auld grey- 
headed men moved a muscle, but they buttoned up 
their pouches, and tuk their great-coats aff pegs on 
the wa', and without speakin' disappeared. Sae did 
the lave, only wi' fear and fright ; and nane but me 
and the twa brithers was left — brithers, I sav\^, they 
were ; for like were they as twa flowers, the ane o' 
which has had its stalk broken, and its head withered, 
while the ither, although unhurt, seems to droop and 
mourn, and to hae lost maist o' its beauty. 

N. There is truth — sad truth in dreams. 

Sh. I heard him ravin' about his father and his 
mother, and the name o' the place the auld folk lived 
in — and ane he ca'd Caroline ! His dead brither's 
sweetheart ! We were on our knees beside the corpse, 
and he tore open the waistcoat and shirt, and put his 
hand to his brither's breast, in mad desperation o' hope 
to feel the heart beatin'. But the last sob was sobbed. 
. . . x\' the time our knees were dabbled in the bluid, 
and the thousand ghaistl}' lichts and shapes and faces 
wavered afoor my een, and I was sick as death. . . . 
And then I thocht, '' Oh, dear I oh, dear ! what wud I 
gie if this were but a bluidy dream ! " And, thank God ! 
a dream it was ; for I brake through the trammels o' sleep 
wi' a groan and a shriek, and a shiver and a shudder and 
a yell, and a happy man was I to see the sweet calm 
moon in the midnight lift, and to hear the murmur 
o' the Yarrow gHdin' awa' through the silent beauty o' 
reposin' Nature. (John Wilson, Blackwood, April, 
1826.) 



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CARD-TABLE TALK, 289 



HAWTHORNE AND CARD-PLAYING. 

ATHANIEL HAWTHORNE wrote from 
Bowdoin College to his sister, April 14, 
1822 : " My occupations this term have 
been much the same as they were last, except that I 
have in a great measure discontinued the practice of 
playing cards. One of the students has been sus- 
pended lately for this offence, and two of our class 
have been fined. I narrowly escaped detection myself, 
and mean for the future to be more careful." When 
United States Consul at Liverpool he boarded w4th 
his family at a Mrs. Blodgett's. Here " the smoking- 
room was an apartment barely twenty feet square, 
though of a fair height ; but the captains smoked a 
great deal, and by nine o'clock sat enveloped in a blue 
cloud. They played euchre with a jovial persistence 
that seems wonderful in the retrospect, especially as 
there was no gambhng. The small boys in the house 
(there were two or three) soon succeeded in mastering 
the mysteries of the game, and occasionally took a 
hand with the captains. Hawthorne was always ready 
to play, and used to laugh a great deal at the turns of 
fortune. He rather enjoyed card-playing, and was a 
very good hand at whist." And of their hfe at Rome, 
his son continues : " In the evenings — which were long, 
for everybody was indoors by six o'clock, Roman air 

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CARD-TABLE TALK. 



291 



not being considered quite salubrious after that hour — 
it got to be the custom to play cards, all the family 
taking a hand first or last. We played whist and 
euchre and old maid, and had great fun. Hawthorne 
was an incomparable companion at such times ; he 
made the life and jollity of the amusement. Every- 
body wanted to be his partner, — not because he ahvays 
won, for he did not, but because either good or evil 
fortune was delightful in alliance with him. He was 
charming in victory, but I am not sure that he was 
not more charming in defeat. The true nature of a 
person is sure to discover itself in a long series of games 
of cards. He entered heartily and unreservedly into 
the spirit of the contest. When he was beaten he 
defrauded his opponents of none of their legitimate 
triumph by affecting indifference, and when he cap- 
tured the odd trick he made no pretence of not caring. 
It was a genuine struggle all the way through, and 
refreshing, however it turned out. Perhaps there are 
few men of fifty-four years who have enough of boyish 
freshness left in them to sit down with their family, 
night after night, and laugh and exult through an 
hour or two's play, in which the only stakes were the 
honor of victory. It never occurred to me to think it 
remarkable then ; but now it seems different. He 
never seemed old to us, however, even to the last. 
There was a primitive freshness in him that was always 
arching his eyebrows and twitching the corners of his 
mouth." (Nathaniel Hawthorne and his Wife, by 
Julian Hawthorne, ii. 204.) 



292 



WHIST SCORES AND 





^ 






^ 






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< 

















































































I 



CARD-TABLE TALK. 



293 



CHITCHAT. 



PLAYING FOR A CHILD. 




N October, 1735, a child of James and Eliza- 
beth Leech, of Chester-le-Street, in the 
county of Durham, was played for at cards, 
at the sign of the Salmon, one game, four shillings 
against the child, by Henry and John Trotter, Robert 
Thomson and Thomas Ellison, which was won by 
the latter and delivered to them accordingly. (Sykes's 
Local Records, 79.) 

LOOKUP THE GAMBLER. 

Next to Beau Nash, perhaps the most famous 
English gamester was Lookup. By birth he was a 
Scotchman, and on the death of the master to whom 
he was apprenticed, wooed and won the widow, and 
thus came into possession of some five hundred 
pounds. With this he went to England and devoted 
himself to play, at which he was very successful. With 
what he won from Chesterfield alone, he was enabled 
to build a row of houses at Bath, which he named 
" Chesterfield Row." He died cards in hand. 



294 



WHIST SCORES AND 











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en 

1 




































































1 











I 



CARD^TABLE TALK, 295 



EPITAPH ON A GREAT CARD-PLAYER. 

Who in this world had many a rub to tame 
His spirits, yet he with his rubs was blest, 
For cards were heaven ; but now a single game, 
Quite grave and low, he plays at endless whist. 

His haitds are changed, and all his honors gone ; 
He cannot call at eight, howe'er afraid ; 
His suit a shroud ; his sequence, to be shown, 
Must wait untold till the last trump. 

(Tentha, Sport. Mag., iii. 141.) 



CARDS AT WAKES. 

Speaking of wakes in northern England, Henderson 
tells us that ^* on the Borders games at cards are act- 
ually played on these occasions, the coffin, incredible 
as it may appear, being the card-table, while the round 
table on which the candle is placed may on no account 
be used." (Folk-Lore, 1879, 55.) 

PAYING HIS DEBTS. 

Apperley tells of the case of one Shelton, a prize- 
fighter, who, when gaming in London in 1832 with a 
low companion, lost first his money, next all his clothes, 
which were taken from his person as they were forfeited, 
^xA finally staked his life ! He lost it; and the win- 
ner, assisted by the man himself, immediately hanged 
him to a lamp-post ! A passing watchman cut him 



296 



WHIST SCORES AND 





^. 






:^ 






Rubbers 










Games 




1 
1 




Points 


















1 















































































I 

1^1 



CARD-TABLE TALK, 



297 



down before he was quite dead ; when the first thing 
he did was to knock down his preserver ^^ for his offi- 
ciousness in preventing him from settHng what he 
considered a debt of honor." 

THE MALAY GAMBLER. 

The Asiatic gambler often becomes desperate, and 
then does not hesitate to stake his wife, his child, his 
own liberty, and at last his life. "A Malayan, how- 
ever, does not always tamely submit to this last stroke 
of fortune. When reduced to a state of desperation 
by repeated ill-luck, he loosens a certain lock of hair 
on his head, which, when flowing down, is a sign of 
war and destruction. He swallows opium or some 
intoxicating liquor, till he works himself up into a fit 
of frenzy, and begins to bite and kill everything that 
comes in his way ; whereupon, as the aforesaid lock of 
hair is'seen flowing, it is lawful to fire at and destroy 
him as quickly as possible, he being considered no 
better than a mad dog." (Steinmetz, i. 6.) 

GAMING IN SPAIN. 

The Spaniards have always been given to gambling 
to a great excess. The following, quoted by Steinmetz 
from '^ Observations in a Tour through Spain," gives a 
good idea how gaming and gaming people were re- 
garded in that country in the early part of the century, 
and we are assured that things have since changed but 
little. '•' After the bull-feast I was invited to pass the 



298 



WHIST SCORES AND 





^ 






;^ 1 




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' 




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CARD-TABLE TALK, 



299 



evening at the hotel of a lady who had a public card- 
assembly. She is an old countess, who has lived nearly 
thirty years on the profits of the card-tables in her 
house. They are frequented every day ; and though 
both natives and foreigners are duped of large sums 
by her and her cabinet-junto, yet it is the greatest 
house of resort in all Madrid.' ' 

WELL LAID. 

A gentleman, stammering much in his speech, laid 
down a winning Card, and then said to his partner : 
" Ho, sa-ay you now, was not this Ca-ca-card pa-a-ssing 
we-we-well la-a-aid?" ^^Yes," says t'other, "'twas well 
laid; but it needs not half that Cackling." (Ashton, 
Humor and Wit, 335.) 

SNAP-DRAGON. 

Cavendish tells us that people are wont to ask 
his opinion, not only as to whist, but also as to all sorts 
of games, and sometimes to put very droll questions. 
The following from a lady in the country, a total strah- 
ger, came to hand about Christmas, 1877: "May 
teetotalers join in a game of snap-dragon?" 

AN ANCIENT TRANSACTION ON 'CHANGE. 

An item in old Jewish history reads in the language 
of to-day : " Esau went short on birthright, Jacob hav- 
ing cornered him by calling in all the pottage there was 
on the market." (Seaver.) 



300 



WHIST SCORES AND 





^ 






:^ 






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— 


1 






1 










































































CARD-TABLE TALK. 301 

WASTE OF TIME. 

Steinmetz tells a good story of a lady fond of gaming 
who was confessing her weakness and receiving the 
reproval of her priest. Among other arguments against 
gaming, he spoke of the great waste of time ; to which 
the lady eagerly replied : '' Ah ! that is just what vexes 
me, — so much time lost in shuffling the cards ! ^' 

SUPERSTITIONS AS TO CARDS. 

In the "Gentleman's Magazine" for 1796 a corre- 
spondent asks : " Why is it customary for women to sit 
cross-legged in order to bring their friends good luck 
at cards ? " But in Aubrey's " Remains of Gentilisme 
and Judaisme," p. 199, we read that "When one has 
ill luck at Cards, 't is common to say that some body 
sitts with his legges acrosse, and brings him ill luck." 

In the "Gentleman's Magazine " it is also stated that 
to have a long succession of black cards (spades or 
clubs) dealt to a person while at play, is prophetic of 
death to himself or some member of the family. And 
Nutt writes to the "Folklore Society" (v. 129) that 
in Suffolk it is considered unlucky to sit opposite the 
" jimmers " (hinges) of the table when playing at 
cards. 

Whetstone, in his " Mirour for Mageftrates of Cities," 
1584, says he once " heard a diftemperate dicer fodenly 
fwear that he faithfully beleeued that dice were firft 
made of the bones of a witch, and cards of her fkin.'* 
CHazlitt, Popular Antiquities, ii. 346.) 



302 



WHIST SCORES AND 





h^ 






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to 



CARD-TABLE TALK. 



CARD NICKNAMES. 



Z^Z 



Cards were formerly called by the pious *^ the devil's 
books," also '^ the devil's pops." Various cards have 
peculiar nicknames, to explain which many contradic- 
tory stories are told. The queen of diamonds has long 
been known as "the curse of Scotland," while in 
Ireland the' six of hearts is styled " Grace's card." 
Among the Spaniards the deuce of cups is called " the 
cow; " and we are informed that sailors call the four 
of clubs '' the devil's bed-posts." 

A number of card terms and expressions have passed 
into the language of common life, the card origin of 
some of which is seldom suspected. Few^ would im- 
agine that the familiar word discard is primarily a card- 
table word. (See p. 163.) The common phrase 
sweep the deck is erroneously supposed originally to 
designate the sweeping of the deck of a ship. Instead, 
it is the card-table expression for taking, or making a 
sweep of all the cards on the table. (See deck, p. 89.) 
Then we have He played his cards well; He showed his 
hand; He's a sure card; and Y021 got euchred that 
time. 




INDEX. 



Ace, etymology of, i6i. 
Acorns, 53, 69. 

Advice to whist-students, 187. 
America, cards in, 10, 61, 79, 81, 95, 
loi, 103. 

gambling in, 139. 

whist in, 177. 
American card-players, 185. 

leads, 179. 
Apache cards, 10, 79, 81. 
Arlington Club, 177. 
Aubrey, 123. 
Autographs of players, 7. 

Backgammon, 39. See Tables. 

Baden-Baden, 135. 

Basset, loi, 113. 

Bath, cards at, 121. 

Battle's, Mrs., opinions on whist, 209. 

Bells, 53, 71- 

Bentiuck, Lord Henr}^, 203. 

Betting, 125. 

Books on whist, 179, 195. 

Bourchier, 115. 

Bowls forbidden, 147. 

Brag, loi. 

Brooks's, 123, 127. 

Brunei's shuffling machine, 223. 

California, gambling in, 143. 
Caligula as a gambler, 37. 
Calling abolished, 177. 
Cambridge, whist at, 179. 
Canvas cards, 61. 
Capistran at Niirnberg, 129. 
Card almanac, 97. 

etymology of, 161. 



Card nicknames, 303. 

oddities, 95. 

sermons, 259. 

titles, 95. 
Card-games, loi. 
Card-party in 1736, 119. 
Card-player, epitaph on, 295. 
Card-players, distinguished, 109, 133, 

203. 
Card-playing, Ettrick Shepherd on, 

275- 

Hawthorne and, 289. 

morality of, 157. 

John Wilson on, 275. 
Card-sharping, 237. 
Cards, in America, 10, 61, 81, 95. 
, American Indian, 10, 79, 81. 

for the blind, 93. 
burned, 131. 
in China, 43, 45, 55. 
at Christmas, 269. 
circular, 61. 
and clergymen, 253. 
comical, 93, 97. 
in England, 87, loi. 
early European, 6i. 
first makers of, 55. 
forbidden, 145, 149. 
fortune-telling with, 245. 
in France, 53, 85, 93, 103, 145. 
French, 93. 

in Germany, 53, 61, 65, loi. 
history of, g, 43. 
for the housekeeper, 93. 
importation forbidden, 149. 
in India, 43, 59, 61. 
in Italy, 83, 85, loi. 



20 



3o6 



INDEX. 



Cards, legislation as to, 145. 

first makers of, 63, 65. 

manufacture of, 99, 151. 

materia], 6i, 73. 

Mexican, 73. 

numeral, 53. 

odd uses of, 97. 

origin of, 43. 

Persian, 59. 

as a prayer-book, 261. 

Scotch, 91. 

with a secondary purpose, 89. 

small, 69, 93. 

in Spain, 53, 69, 73, 103. 

superstitions as to, 301. 

Swiss, 85. 

tax on, 149. 

tricks with, 229. 

unique, 67, 93. 

at wakes, 295. 

to ivin with, 243. 
Carding, in England, iii. 
in France, 105. 
in Germany, 129. 
a satire on, 271. 
Cavendish's laws and principles, 25, 

179. 
Change, 229. 

Charles VI. of France, 55. 
Cheating, 205, 243. 
Checkers. See Draughts. 
Chess, III. 

Louis XIII. 's fondness for, 
105. 

in the Middle Ages, 39. 
Chess-boards burned, 129. 

of gold and silver, 41. 
Child gambled away, 293. 
Children taught chess and whist, 39, 

121. 
China, cards in, 43, 45, 55. 
Chinee, the heathen, 239. 
Christmas, cards at, 269. 
Claudius as a gambler, 37. 
Clay, James, 203, 223. 
Clergy forbidden to gamble, 147. 
Clergymen and cards, 253. 
Club-houses, 123. 
Clubs, 53, 77, 79. 



Coat-card, etymology of, 163. 

Coins, 53. 

Columbus and cards, 77. 

Combination of hands, 183, 192. 

Comical cards, 93, 97. 

Compleat Gamester, 117, 171. 

Connecticut's laws against gaming, 

147. 
Coup, etymology of, 163. 
Court-card, etymology of, 163. 
Court-cards, 57 ff., 87. 
" Cow," the, 303. 
Cross-legs and luck at cards, 301. 
Crusaders, gaming among, 145. 
Culinary cards, 93. 
Cups, 53, 73. 
" Curse of Scotland," the, 303. 

Dames, 39. 

DeaHng, 243. 

Debts contracted at play, 149. 

Deck, 89. 

De La Rue & Co., 87. 

Deuce, etymology of, 163. 

portrait of, 5. 
Developments of whist, 179. 
"Devil's bed-posts," the, 303. 
" Devil's pops," the, 303. 
Diamonds, 53. 
Dice burned, 131. 

in Egypt, 35. 

forbidden, 147, 149. 

in Germany, 131. 

in the Middle Ages, 39. 

at Rome, 37. 

silver, 39. 
Discard, etymology of, 163. 
Discarding, 192. 
"Dogs," 35. 
Draughts in Egypt, 37. 
in Europe, 39. 
in the Middle Ages, 39. 
"Drops," 89. 

Duffer's whist-maxims, the, 195. 
Duty on cards, 151. 
Duty-card, 151. 



"Easy whist," 19, 
Ecarte, 103. 



[79. 



INDEX. 



307 



Egypt, games in, 35. 
Elizabeth fond of cards, 123. 
England, cards in, 87, loi, 103. 

gaming in, iii, 147, 149. 
Engraving, 63, 65. 
Esau and Jacob, 299. 
Etiquette at whist, 205- 
Ettrick Shepherd on card-playing, 

the, 275. 
Etymologies, 8, 161. 
Euchre, 103. 
Euchred, 303. 

Face cards, 57 ff., 87. 

False cards, 185, 199. 

Finesse, etymology of, X63. 

Fishmongers' Hall, 123. 

Force, 229. 

Forcing, 194. 

Fortune-telling with cards, 245. 

Fouche and gaming-houses, 107. 

Fourth hand, 194. 

Fox, 123. 

France, cards in, 53, 85, 93, loi, 103, 

145- 
gaming in, 105, 149. 
" French cards," 93. 

Gambler, Malay, 297. 
Gambling. See Gaming. 
Games before cards, 35, 
with cards, 10 1. 
Gaming in America, 139. 

before cards, 35. 

among the Crusaders, 145. 

in England, iii, 147, 149. 

in France, 105, 149. 

in Germany, 129, 

legislation as to, 145. 

at Monte Carlo, 137. 

in Spain, 297. 
George IV.'s bet on drakes, 125. 
German whist, 219. 
Germany, cards in, 53, 61, loi. 

gaming in, 39, 129. 
" Grace's card," 303. 
Grammatical cards, 89. 
Granville's devotion to whist, 127. 
Greeks, games among the, 37. 



Gringonneur, 55. 
Gypsies and cards, 43, 45. 

Hares, queen of, 65. 

Haw^thorne and card-playing, 289. 

Hear:s, 53. 

"Hells," 123, 2S1. 

Heraldic cards, 89, 91. 

High play, 39, 115, 123, 127, 133. 

Hindu. See India. 

History' of cards, 9, 43. 

of whist, 169. 
Homburg, 135. 
Honor, etymology of, 163. 
Hoyle, Edmond, 173, 175. 

" If you had," 187. 
Illustrations, 9, 15. 
India, cards in, 43, 59, 61. 
Indian (Apache) cards, 10, 79, 81. 
Instructive cards, 89. 
Invitations on cards, 97. 
Italy, cards in, 83, 85, loi. 
" It made no difference," 201. 
Ivory cards, 61. 

Jacob and Esau, 299. 
Jack, etymology of, 163. 

Knave, 97. 

etymology of, 163. 
Koran and games, the, 43. 

Lamb, on whist, 209. 

whist with, 213. 
Landsknechtspiel, 10 1. 
Language, w^hist a, 183. 
Latimer's card sermons, 169, 259. 
Law, John, 107, 117. 
Leading, 192, 195, 209. 
Learning whist, 185. 
Leather cards, 61. 
Leaves, 53, 67. 
Legislation as to cards and gaming, 

145- 
Leo X. as a card-player, 253. 
Life staked, 295. 
Long suit, 191, 195. 
Lookup, the gambler, 293. 



3o8 



INDEX. 



Lots, 3 5, 157. 
Lotteries in France, 107. 
origin of, 131. 
Luck at cards, 301. 
Lying-in, card-parties during, 119. 

Machinery, whist played by, 223. 

Malay gambler, 297. 

Manufacture of cards, 65, 99, 151. 

Marie Antoinette fond of cards, 107. 

Mason, 257. 

Massachusetts, laws against gaming, 

147. 
Mawe, 113. 

Mazarin, Cardinal, 107, 253. 
Memory, artificial, 173. 
at whist, 189. 
Mercury playing dice, 35. 
Metal cards, 61. 
Mexican cards, 73 
Middleton's cards, 261. 
Milman, 257. 
Minchiate, loi. 
^Ministers and cards, 253. 
Mohammedans and cards, 43. 
Monaco, gaming at, 137. 
Money, 53, 75. 

Moi\te Carlo, gaming at, 137. 
Montezuma and cards, 75. 
Morality of card-playing, 157. 

Naibis. See Tarots. 
Napoleon and cards, 85, 109. 
Nash, 121. 

Nero as a gambler, 37. 
Newton's visiting-card, 99. 
Nicknames, 303. 
Number of hands, 227. 
Numeral cards, 53. 



Observation at whist, 181, 

''Old Frizzle," 151. 

Old people at cards, 275, 277 

Ombre, 103, 173. 

Opening, 193. 

Otto the Great, 145. 

Palamedes, 37. 
Partner's long suit, 191. 



191. 



Pass, 229. 

Paston, Margery, iii. 

Persian cards, 59. 

Phillpotts, 257. 

Picture-cards, 201. See Court-cards. 

Piping, 243. 

Pips, 87. 

Piquet, 103, 173. 

Playing for a child, 293. 

for a wife, 117. 

w^hist, 209. 
Playing-cards. See Cards. 
Poe on whist, 181. 
Points, 89. 
Poker, loi. 

Pole's Philosophy of Whist, 29, 179. 
Pompeii, gambling at, 39. 
Pope and whist, 173. 
Portland Club, 127, 177. 
Post-and-pair, loi, 
Poupart, Charles, 55. 
Practice at whist, 187. 
Preference, 221. 
Primero, loi. 
Psycho, 223. 

Puritans and card-playing, the, 147, 
157- 

Quadrille, 173, 281. 
Queen wanting, 69. 

Return of partner's suit, 192, 195, 

197. 
Revoke, etymology of, 165. 
Revoking, 205. 
Rome, gambling at, 37. 
Rouge-et-noir, loi. 
Rubber, etymology of, 165. 
Ruff, etymology of, 165. 
Ruff-and-honors, 103, 171. 
Rules, 193, 197. 

Santo Domingo, cards at, 75, 
Satire on carding, 271. 
Saunders's, 175. 
Sauter la coupe, 229. 
Scolding, 185, 207. 
Scotch cards, 91. 
Second hand, 193. 



INDEX. 



309 



Sequence, 193, 197. 

etymology of, 165. 
Shakespeare, allusions to cards, 89, 

113, 171- 
Short whist, 177. 
Shuffle-boards burned, 131. 

forbidden, 147. 
Shuffling, 223. 

machine, 223. 
Silk cards, 61. 
Silver cards, 61, 67- 

dice, 39. 
Single card, 195. 
Singles, 87, 89. 
Slam, etymology of, 165. 
SHp, 229. 
Spa, 135. 

Spade, etymology of, 165. 
Spades, 53, 81. 

ace of, 151. 
Spain, cards in, 53, 65, 73, 103. 

gaming in, 297. 
Spots, 87. 
Stakes, 109, 127. 
Stencilled cards, 63. 
Suit, etymology of, 167. 
Suits in Chinese cards, 57, 

in European cards, 53, 

in Hindu cards, 61. 
Sunday, games forbidden, 149. 
Superstitions as to cards, 301. 
Swabbers, 167, 171. 
Swedish whist, 221. 
Sweep the deck, 303. 
Swiss cards, 85. 
Swords, 53, 81, 83, 85. 

Tables, 39, in, 147, 269. 
Talking at whist, 203, 209. 
Tarocchi, loi. 
Tarocchino, loi. 
Tarots, 47. 
Tax on cards, 149. 
Taylor, Rev. E. S., 5, 18. 

Jeremy, and cards, 157. 
Teaching whist, 185. 
"Telegraph," 243. 
Tenace, etymology of, 167. 
Tenuis forbidden, 147. 



Third hand, 193. 

Thompson's poem on whist, 175. 

Time wasted, 301. 

Tom of Quadrille, 271. 

Tortoise-shell cards, 61. • 

Trappola, loi. 

Trefoil, 53. 

Trey, etymology of, 167. 

portrait of, 5. 
Trick, etymology of, 167. 
Tricks with cards, 229. 
Triomphe, 103. 
Triumph, 167, 169 = 
Troy, checkers at, 37. 
Trump, 103, 167, 169. 

etymology of, 167. 

nnportance of, 189. 

management of, 193. 
Truthful James, 239. 
Turf Club, 127. 
Tyrants, whist, 207= 

Uncle and aunt, 187. 

Visiting-cards, 97. 

Wakes, cards at, 295. 
Watering-places, gaming at, 133. 
''Well laid," 299. 
Wesley and whist, 257. 
Whist, 161. 

advantages of, 181. 

in America, 177, 205. 

Mrs. Battle's opinions on, 209. 

for Beginners, 20, 179. 

books on, 179. 

at Cambridge, 179. 

a catechism of, 217. 

taught children, 121. 

developments, 179. 

an epic poem, 175. 

etiquette, 205. 

etymology' of, 167. 

German, 219. 

number of hands at, 227. 

Josephine fond of, 109. 

Lamb on, 209. 

with Charles Lamb, 213. 

a language, 183. 



3IO 



INDEX, 



Whist maxims, 195. 

played by machinery, 223. 
players, great, 109, 133, 203. 
Poe on, 181. 
scores, 7, 36. 
at St. Cloud, 109. 
students, 185, 187. 
Swedish, 221. 
talking at, 203, 209. 
teaching and learning, 185. 
and the temper, 203. 



Whist tyrants, 207. 

Wesley at, 257. 
White's, 123, 125, 175. 
Wife gambled away, 117. 
Wilson, John, on card-playing, 275. 
Women as card-makers, 65. 

as gamesters, 115, 117, 271. 
Wooden cards, 61. 
W^orkiug-people, cards forbidden, 145. 

Young folks at cards, 279. 



THE END. 



